PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE)
East-Turkistan.Net
contact@East-Turkistan.Net
21 September 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of President Donald J. Trump’s September 24 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile (ETGE) calls on President Trump to confront Xi over China’s ongoing genocide against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan, and to ensure that no agreement with Beijing comes at the expense of the East Turkistani people. Trade, AI, and critical minerals are expected to feature prominently.
East Turkistan is not a peripheral issue. It is central to China’s economic, energy, and strategic power. Chinese government figures place approximately 30 percent of China’s onshore petroleum resources, 34 percent of its natural-gas resources, and more than 40 percent of its coal resources in East Turkistan. Beijing itself describes the occupied country as a “core area” and gateway of the Belt and Road Initiative linking China with Central Asia and wider Eurasia.
It is also central to China’s military and technological infrastructure. Near Qumul, the Chinese military has constructed a field containing approximately 110 intercontinental ballistic-missile silos, while Lop Nur served as China’s nuclear-testing ground. Chinese authorities are expanding large-scale computing and AI infrastructure across the territory.
The ETGE maintains that China’s occupation enables Beijing to exploit East Turkistan’s resources, strategic geography, and people while strengthening the power underpinning its competition with the United States. President Trump’s first administration signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, sanctioned the Chinese colonial paramilitary Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and responsible officials, and formally determined in January 2021 that the PRC had committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other persecuted peoples.
“President Trump has already demonstrated that America can confront Beijing over its crimes in East Turkistan,” said Dr. Mamtimin Ala, President of the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile. “He should make clear to Xi Jinping that genocide, colonial occupation, and the exploitation of our homeland cannot be separated from the strategic challenge China poses to the United States. Ending the genocide requires confronting the occupation that sustains it and supporting the restoration of East Turkistan’s national independence.”
East Turkistan possesses a millennia-old history of statehood and political sovereignty predating the People’s Republic of China. The East Turkistan Republics proclaimed in 1933 and 1944 represented modern restorations of that sovereignty. The ETGE maintains that the East Turkistani people retain their inherent right to decolonization, national self-determination, and the restoration of national independence and sovereignty.
“The critical minerals, energy resources, trade routes, and military infrastructure Beijing controls through Occupied East Turkistan are pillars of Chinese strategic power,” said Salih Hudayar, Foreign Minister of the ETGE and President of the East Turkistan National Movement. “East Turkistan’s independence is therefore not only essential to the survival of our people, but also directly relevant to America’s long-term strategic interests.”
The ETGE calls on President Trump to raise the genocide and occupation directly with Xi Jinping, reject agreements that weaken accountability or forced-labor restrictions, demand the release of arbitrarily detained East Turkistanis, and support the East Turkistani people’s right to decolonization and the restoration of national independence and sovereignty.