Press Statement– For immediate Release
11 December 2023
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
+49 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

December 12, marks the 38th anniversary of the 1985 Uyghur Student Movement. On this day, thousands of Uyghur students took to the streets in Urumchi, to protest the racial and family planning policies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Uyghurs, as well as the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the dried-up Lop Nor basin of East Turkistan. The radiation of the nuclear testings have caused heavy pollution in the region, and birth defects in Uyghur children. Simultaneous protests were also held in Kashgar, Aqsu, Hoten, and Bortala, as well as in Shanghai, Guang Zhou, and Beijing in front of the local regional governments. International reports from 1985 call the protests the first ever public anti-nuclear protests in China. 

“The student demonstration of December 12, 1985 was the starting point of the Democratic movement in the recent history of East Turkistan,” said World Uyghur Congress President, Dolkun Isa. “This movement showed not only the desire for freedom and democracy of the people of East Turkistan, but also to raise the socio-economic discrimination targeting Uyghurs.”

The December student movement was influenced and organised by the organisation of Tengritagh generation, a legal organisation of Uyghur students at Xinjiang University  The strong and insistent protests forced the Chinese authorities to meet with around 20 student delegates to hear their demands, which included the necessity for democratic elections to be held in East Turkistan, during which Uyghurs can elect their own representatives; to end the influx of Chinese settlers into East Turkistan; to stop repressive birth control policies, and to develop the national education of East Turkistan.

Despite the Chinese government eventually going after the student leaders, and creating an “inspection and disposal committee” which began to investigate and interrogate student leaders, participants and supporters, the week-long protests led to several organisations and mass campaigns emerging across universities in East Turkistan. The 1985 events also influenced the democratic youth movement of June 15, 1988 which was led by the current World Uyghur Congress President, Dolkun Isa.

In reminiscence of the spirit of the 1985 protest, the World Uyghur Congress urges the international community to draw lessons from the past and take all necessary steps to end the Chinese government’s genocide against the Uyghur people.