PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE)
East-Turkistan.Net
contact@East-Turkistan.Net
18 July 2025

Washington, D.C. – July 18, 2025 – In a unified call to action, leaders from 20 East Turkistani/Uyghur organizations across the global diaspora have issued an open letter to President Donald J. Trump, urging his administration to confront the People’s Republic of China’s ongoing genocide against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan. Timed ahead of Captive Nations Week 2025, the letter emphasizes the crisis as both a profound humanitarian catastrophe and a direct threat to U.S. national security, economic interests, and global stability.

The letter highlights historic steps taken during President Trump’s first term, including the recognition of China’s atrocities as genocide and crimes against humanity, the enactment of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, and sanctions on Chinese officials and entities. However, it criticizes China’s persistent deception, including its failure to honor the Phase One trade agreement, which Beijing exploited to intensify repression while undermining American economic interests.

“Today, millions endure mass internment, forced labor, sterilization, family separations, and cultural erasure,” the letter states. It underscores East Turkistan’s status as a captive nation under the 1959 Captive Nations Resolution (Public Law 86-90) and details the strategic, economic, and authoritarian threats posed by China’s occupation:

• Strategic Control: East Turkistan anchors China’s Belt and Road Initiative, enabling dominance over trade routes in Central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East.
• Resource Exploitation: The nation’s oil, gas, uranium, lithium, and rare earth minerals fuel China’s military and surveillance capabilities.
• Economic Harm: Slave labor floods U.S. markets with cheap goods, destroying American jobs and violating sanctions.
• Authoritarian Expansion: China’s AI-driven repression serves as a model for global digital authoritarianism.

The signatories call for immediate executive measures to protect U.S. interests and uphold principles of self-determination and justice:

• Issue an Executive Order recognizing East Turkistan as an occupied nation.
• Expand sanctions on Chinese officials and entities involved in genocide, forced labor, and surveillance.
• Strengthen the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act by banning all imports from Occupied East Turkistan and genocide-linked Chinese goods.
• Adopt East Turkistan in official U.S. communications, rejecting China’s colonial term “Xinjiang.”
• Reject any deals with China that compromise East Turkistani interests, ensuring no agreements delay accountability for genocide, forced labor, or repression.

“The United States has a moral and strategic imperative to act,” the letter asserts. “Recognizing East Turkistan as occupied, supporting its independence, and enforcing economic measures will safeguard American jobs, bolster national security, and defend freedom.”

Dr. Mamtimin Ala, President of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, stated: “The Chinese Communist regime is escalating its genocidal campaign in East Turkistan with renewed ideological force and strategic intent. 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.”