11May 2026
Press Release – For Immediate Release
East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE)
East-Turkistan.Net
contact@East-Turkistan.Net
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of President Donald J. Trump’s state visit to Beijing on May 14–15, the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile (ETGE) and the East Turkistan National Movement (ETNM) calls on the President to directly raise China’s ongoing genocide and colonial occupation of East Turkistan and Tibet with Xi Jinping, and to ensure that no agreement concluded at this summit enables the continuation of these atrocities.
The ETGE notes that President Trump described Xi Jinping as “a good man, smart man” in a May 10 interview with Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson. The ETGE reminds the President that Xi Jinping ordered the genocide now entering its thirteenth year against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in occupied East Turkistan. East Turkistan holds China’s largest reserves of beryllium and major deposits of lithium, zirconium, rubidium, titanium, magnesium, and rare earth elements, the very critical minerals under negotiation at this summit, all extracted from occupied territory under conditions the United Nations has assessed may constitute enslavement as a form of crimes against humanity.
Xi Jinping’s genocidal campaign has produced mass internment, mass enslavement through forced labor exceeding the Communist regime’s projection of 13.75 million transfers, forced sterilization, the separation of over one million Uyghur and other Turkic children from their families, and organ harvesting from hundreds of thousands of East Turkistanis. Beijing’s 2026 “Ethnic Unity Law” codified the erasure of non-Chinese peoples into statute.
President Trump’s first administration was the first government to designate these atrocities as genocide, enacted the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, and sanctioned the Chinese colonial paramilitary Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). No other American president has confronted the Chinese Communist Party on this scale. Roosevelt never confronted the Holocaust while it was happening. President Trump can.
“There is only one solution to guarantee our people’s human rights and survival: decolonization and the restoration of East Turkistan’s national independence,” said Dr. Mamtimin Ala, President of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile. “On May 5, we submitted East Turkistan’s first-ever formal petition to the UN Decolonization Committee, and we call on the International community, including the United States to support our struggle to restore our independence.”
China’s occupation of East Turkistan is a direct threat to American national security. East Turkistan holds one-third of China’s oil and gas reserves and over 40 percent of its coal reserves, powering the Chinese economy and military. Beijing conducted all of its nuclear tests on East Turkistani soil, including one as recently as 2020, is expanding its construction of hundreds of ICBM silos in the occupied territory aimed at the United States, and houses China’s critical AI and data center infrastructure in East Turkistan. The occupied territory anchors China’s Belt and Road expansion, and its mineral monopoly gives China leverage over American defense supply chains. A free, independent East Turkistan would sever China’s energy lifeline, neutralize its nuclear staging ground, and break Beijing’s mineral monopoly. East Turkistan’s independence is American strategic necessity.
In 1987, President Reagan declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” President Trump must demonstrate that same American leadership: look Xi in the eye and declare, “Mr. Xi, end this genocide. End the occupation of East Turkistan and Tibet. Free these captive nations.” That is the Reagan moment of our time.
“The critical minerals at this summit are extracted from occupied East Turkistan under conditions of genocide and enslavement,” said Salih Hudayar, Foreign Minister of the ETGE and President of the ETNM. “A restored free and independent East Turkistan would supply America these minerals at competitive rates, strengthening American industry and breaking Beijing’s chokehold.”
The ETGE calls on President Trump to condemn China’s ongoing genocide in East Turkistan and Tibet in his meeting with Xi; reject any agreement enabling the genocide and enslavement of East Turkistanis and Tibetans; appoint a Special Coordinator for East Turkistani Issues at the State Department; and support East Turkistan and Tibet’s recovery of independence and liberty under the Captive Nations Law.