Press Release – For Immediate Release
1 October 2022
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On Saturday, October 1, 2022, over a hundred Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, and others rallied at the White House in Washington, DC, to protest the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. 

The demonstration was organized by the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (ETNAM), a Washington, DC-based non-profit organization advocating for the political independence and human rights of East Turkistan and its people. The demonstration also included representatives of the Tibetan, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese groups and other Uyghur organizations in the United States.

On October 1, 1949, the Chinese Communist Party declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Shortly afterward, it announced its intention to invade and occupy East Turkistan, Tibet, Southern Mongolia, and Taiwan. 

“While October 1 is marked as “China’s National Day,” it’s a day of tragedy for humanity,” said President Ghulam Yaghma of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. “For the people of East Turkistan, Tibet, Southern Mongolia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, October 1 is a black day that marks the renewed birth of Chinese colonialism and imperialism,” he added.

Twelve days later , on October 12, the Chinese communist imperialists’ so-called “People’s Liberation Army” invaded the sovereign and independent nation of East Turkistan. Two months later, on December 22, 1949, the Chinese communist imperialists overthrew the independent Republic of East Turkistan.

For the past 72 years, the People’s Republic of China has been waging a brutal campaign of colonization and occupation in East Turkistan. Since May 2014, the Chinese empire has been waging an official systematic campaign of genocide against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples to ” prevent East Turkistan’s independence” to ensure that East Turkistan becomes “forever a part of China.”

Since 2021, the U.S. Government and the parliaments of over a dozen European countries and Canada have officially recognized China’s ongoing genocide of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan. Yet, despite numerous condemnations and low-level sanctions, China’s colonization, genocide, and occupation campaign continues.

“Many people are foolishly hoping that if the group headed by President Xi Jinping of China is deposed from power or if the rule of the Chinese Communist Party ends in China and a democratic system takes over, all problems caused by China will end,” said Prime Minister Salih Hudayar of the East Turkistan government in Exile. “But the real problem for the people of East Turkistan, Tibet, and Southern Mongolia is China’s colonial occupation of their respective countries. Unless the colonialist tendencies of the Chinese and their forced occupation of other countries end, there is no hope for these colonized countries,” he said at the demonstration.

The East Turkistan Government in Exile has long been calling on the international community to take swift and meaningful actions to end China’s ongoing genocide in East Turkistan and end Communist China and Chinese colonial imperialism. 

“Seventy-three years is enough; we plead with the world to end China’s prolonged campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation in East Turkistan,” said Dr. Aziz Sulayman, the Acting Foreign Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile. 

“We plead with governments across the world to support East Turkistan’s struggle to ensure its freedom, independence, and very existence in the same ways that they are supporting Ukraine’s struggle to preserve its freedom, independence, and very existence,” he added.

In front of the White House, demonstrators urged the U.S. Government to designate the Chinese Communist Party as a ‘transitional criminal terrorist organization.’ They also called on the U.S. Government to support East Turkistan’s struggle to regain its freedom and independence by formally recognizing East Turkistan as an Occupied Country.

The East Turkistan Government in Exile reciters that the only way to end the ongoing genocide and ensure democracy, freedom, and human rights in East Turkistan, as well as the very existence of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples, is to restore East Turkistan’s complete independence from Chinese imperialism in all forms, including Communism.