PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
East Turkistan Government in Exile
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14 July 2021
WASHINGTON: Every year since 1959 American Presidents have issued a Captive Nations proclamation condemning Soviet and Communist imperialism and repression. The proclamation is issued shortly before the week itself and has featured robust language.
The Captive Nations Law, formally known as Public Law 86-90, includes Turkestan, Tibet, Manchuria, and Mainland China as Captive Nations. The East Turkistan Government in Exile is urging the U.S. to designate East Turkistan as a Captive Nation and recognize it as an Occupied Country in this year’s proclamation.
This year, Captive Nations Week would have been scheduled to take place this year from July 18-24. However, the White House is considering ditching this significant annual proclamation. The East Turkistan Government in Exile is calling on the White House to not cancel the the historic and crucial ‘Captive Nations Week’ proclamations.
“We urge the White House to stand in solidarity with subjugated nations by continuing to commemorate Captive Nations Week. We call on President Joe Biden to formally designate East Turkistan as a Captive Nation and Address China’s ongoing genocide of Uyghurs,” said Prime Minister Hudayar of the East Turkistan Government in Exile.
China colonized and annexed East Turkistan also known as the land of the Eastern Turks (Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, and Tatars), in December 1949 when the People’s Republic of China and its Communist Party took over.
East Turkistan is 1,828,418 square kilometers and encompasses present-day administrative areas of the so-called “Xinjiang,” Uyghur Autonomous Region, and parts of western Gansu and Qinghai Province that China invaded.
China refers to East Turkistan as “Xinjiang (New Territory),” a highly offensive term to East Turkistanis. Throughout its unique history, East Turkistan has maintained a distinctive, sovereign, national, and religious identity separate from Chinas. Except during periods of illegal Chinese occupation, East Turkistan has also maintained a separate and sovereign political and territorial identity.
Today, over 1400 concentration camps and labor camps have been built in East Turkistan, and hold million of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples under oppressive conditions. The situation is so severe that the US Government, the Parliaments of Canada, the UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, and the Czech Republic have declared China’s acts against the Uyghurs in East Turkistan a genocide and crimes against humanity.
