Beijing’s installation of Chen Xiaojiang signals further intensification of its campaign of genocide, propaganda, and transnational repression
PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE)
East-Turkistan.Net
contact@East-Turkistan.Net
1 July 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) categorically condemns and rejects the Chinese Communist Party’s appointment of Chen Xiaojiang as the new Party Secretary of Occupied East Turkistan, officially referred to as the so-called “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” by the Chinese occupation regime. This is not a routine bureaucratic change, but a calculated political maneuver designed to further escalate China’s ongoing genocide of the Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples and to deepen the totalitarian occupation of East Turkistan.
Chen Xiaojiang, a vice minister in the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, the CCP’s central political warfare and civilian intelligence agency, has played a key role in advancing the Party’s campaign to suppress Uyghur and other Turkic resistance to Chinese domination in Occupied East Turkistan and abroad. As head of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Chen further institutionalized the CCP’s policy of national erasure targeting non-Chinese peoples under the pretext of “ethnic unity,” reinforcing the machinery of ideological control, forced assimilation, and state-directed genocide.
The United Front Work Department is directly involved in managing the CCP’s control over non-Chinese ethnic groups, religious communities, diaspora populations, and foreign targets. It operates in coordination with the Ministry of State Security (MSS) and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), and is responsible for surveillance, coercion, co-optation, and psychological and political operations aimed at consolidating Party rule. Chen’s appointment as Party Secretary places one of the regime’s most experienced architects of political subjugation and colonial repression at the helm of its occupation in East Turkistan.
“China has appointed Chen Xiaojiang as CCP Secretary of Occupied East Turkistan, placing him in direct command of the ongoing Uyghur Genocide,” said Salih Hudayar, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Security of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. “As a former senior official of the United Front Work Department, Chen now fuses propaganda, intelligence coordination, and repression into one role, his function is comparable to that of Beria, Goebbels, and Himmler combined. This appointment represents a further tightening of the genocidal grip imposed by the Chinese Communist regime and should be treated as a major escalation by the international community.”
Chen’s appointment signals an escalation of the China’s genocidal policies in Occupied East Turkistan and must be understood as a serious warning of intensified repression.
First, this development is expected to reinforce and expand existing genocidal and assimilationist campaigns. Based on China’s established genocidal policies and Chen’s prior roles, repression of Uyghur/Turkic cultural, linguistic, and religious identity is likely to intensify. Mass internment and forced indoctrination programs labeled as “re-education,” “patriotic education,” “de-extremification” have historically functioned as instruments of genocide and sinicization. Their further expansion would deepen efforts to not only erase the ethnic and national identity of East Turkistan’s native peoples but also their very existence and entrench Chinese settler-colonial domination.
Second, the appointment appears intended to manipulate international perceptions. The Chinese government is framing Chen’s elevation as a sign of ethnic affairs competence. In reality, it signals a strategic shift toward deeper ideological control and information warfare, aimed at discrediting East Turkistani/Uyghur voices and expanding disinformation campaigns designed to obscure Beijing’s crimes and undermine support for East Turkistan’s struggle for decolonization, justice and national self-determination.
Third, this move likely foreshadows a broader expansion of surveillance and coercive technologies within East Turkistan. Given Chen’s previous involvement in political warfare and influence operations, the deployment of biometric surveillance, facial recognition, and digital repression tools is expected to grow under the false pretexts of “anti extremism, anti-separatism, and anti-terrorism”. China may also escalate its campaign of transnational repression by targeting East Turkistani/Uyghur communities abroad through intimidation, cyber operations, infiltration and co-optation aimed at eliminating East Turkistan’s independence movement and silencing advocates.
“Chen’s appointment is a clear signal that the Chinese Communist regime is escalating its genocidal campaign in East Turkistan with renewed ideological force and strategic intent,” said Dr. Mamtimin Ala, President of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. “The international community must no longer be content with statements of concern or symbolic gestures. The time has come for coordinated and decisive action. Governments must impose targeted sanctions, pursue legal accountability, and recognize East Turkistan’s right to independence as essential to ending this genocide and restoring the rights, security, and future of our people.”
The East Turkistan Government in Exile reiterates its position that only the full restoration of East Turkistan’s independence can end the ongoing genocide and decades of Chinese occupation and colonization. We call on governments, parliaments, international organizations, and civil society to confront the Chinese regime’s campaign of colonization, genocide, and transnational repression by taking meaningful political, diplomatic, and legal measures.
This includes imposing comprehensive sanctions on Chinese officials, supporting accountability efforts at the International Criminal Court, and recognizing the Chinese occupation of East Turkistan as the root cause of the suffering endured by its people. The international community must support East Turkistan’s struggle for decolonization and the restoration of its liberty and independence in order to guarantee the fundamental right of our people to self-determination, survival, and national existence.