Press Release – For immediate release
15 October 2022
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

Ahead of the 20th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) congress, which will take place from 16-22 October 2022, the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is urging Xi Jinping, who is set to secure a precedent-breaking third term as CCP General Secretary, to urgently end his genocide policies against the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. 

“A decade ago, when Xi Jinping started his first term as General Secretary of the CCP,  nobody could foresee the suffering he would inflict on the Uyghur people”, said WUC President, Dolkun Isa. “In these ten years under his leadership, the Chinese government has orchestrated and implemented a policy of repression against the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan that are now internationally recognized as crimes against humanity and genocide.”

During Xi Jinping’s last two terms, millions of Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained in concentration camps, where they are subjected to torture, sexual and gender-based violence and rape, malnutrition, and extremely unsanitary conditions. Throughout East Turkistan as a whole, the Uyghur people have further suffered from forced labour, birth prevention policies, family separation, and the destruction of cultural and religious sites and buildings.

Even in the last months, the repression in East Turkistan has shown no signs of slowing down. Under extremely harsh lockdowns, which have left many affected Uyghurs without essential resources such as food and medicine, Uyghurs have taken to social media to appeal for help. Given the lack of these essential supplies, it has been reported that over 20 Uyghurs have died from starvation or a lack of medical aid. 

The genocidal policies of the CCP against the Uyghur people have had a detrimental impact on the future of the Uyghur people. Apart from the severe transgenerational trauma, statistics about Uyghur birth rates have indicated that millions of Uyghur births will have been prevented in the next two decades. 

Apart from the destructive impact on the existence of the Uyghur people, Xi Jinping’s policies have also strained the relations between China and other countries worldwide, who have become increasingly outspoken against the atrocity crimes and are implementing policies to hold the Chinese government accountable. Such measures will not only hurt those directly responsible but will surely have an impact on Chinese society as a whole.

In the face of these atrocity crimes, and the harsh impacts this had and will continue to have on Uyghurs and the Chinese society, the WUC calls for reform within the CCP, to immediately end these atrocities, unconditionally release all those arbitrarily detained, and dismantle its system of forced labour in East Turkistan.