Second East Turkistan Republic (1944-1949)
Table of Contents
The second East Republic, officially known as the East Turkistan Republic [Sherqiy Türkistan Jumhuriyiti], was a short-lived independent state from 1944 to 1949. It was the second successful attempt by the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples of East Turkistan to declare independence and establish a modern independent state in the 20th century.
The East Turkistan Republic was the primary product of an independence movement led by Uyghur and other Turkic people living in East Turkistan, and multi-ethnic and Turkic in character, including Kazakhs, Kyrgyz Uzbeks, Tatars, and even Mongols in its government and armed forces.
Following the assassination of its leaders in a “plane crash” in August 1949, along with an invasion by the then newly established People’s Republic of China (Communist China), the second ETR was overthrown on December 22, 1949. However, along with the first East Turkistan Republic (1933-1934), it serves as a basis and inspiration for the modern East Turkistan independence movement supported by Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples aiming to re-establish the independent East Turkistan Republic.
Origins of the Second ETR
East Turkistan was governed, with Soviet influence, by the Han Chinese warlord Sheng Shicai between 1934 and 1943. Following Uyghur uprisings in 1937 aimed at restoring East Turkistan’s independence, Sheng began a great purge, imprisoning and executing Uyghur and other Turkic leaders, scholars, and anyone he deemed a threat to his power. Among those purged included Uyghur leaders like Khoja Niyaz, who was the Vice Chairman of the region at that time. Under Sheng Shicai’s rule, East Turkistan and its people were subjected to brutal repression, similar to Chen Quanguo’s rule today. Some 200,000 Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples were arrested and executed under Sheng’s totalitarian rule.
Kazakhs in the Altay region of East Turkistan, under the leadership of Osman Islam (Osman Batur) and Delilqan Sugurbayev, rebelled against Sheng’s rule in the Koktokay Rebellion in 1941. By the end of 1941, Sheng’s brutal totalitarian regime in East Turkistan created widespread discontent amongst Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Tatars, and even Mongols living in East Turkistan, resulting in calls for independence to get stronger again.
Although he was initially aligned closely with the Soviet Union, taking advantage of Soviet setbacks in its war with Germany, Sheng shifted towards the Republic of China (Nationalist China) in Nanjing and expelled all Soviet personnel from the region in 1942.
In April 1942, Isaqbek Munonow, Director of the Society for the Promotion of Kazakh and Kyrgyz Culture, sought political asylum in the Soviet Union alongside hundreds of other Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, and Mongol leaders. This mass exodus signaled a major geopolitical shift; the Soviet Union abandoned its support for Sheng Shicai’s regime and pivoted toward backing the burgeoning Turkic national independence movement in East Turkistan.
By mid-1943, these leaders established the East Turkistan National Liberation Organization (ETNLO), securing covert military and logistical support from Moscow to combat Chinese occupation. Concurrently, the warlord Sheng Shicai formally aligned himself with the Republic of China (KMT), which integrated his administration into the Nationalist hierarchy by appointing him head of the ‘Xinjiang Provincial Government.
Following the Soviet’s victories against Germany in 1944, Sheng sent a letter to Stalin offering to incorporate East Turkistan (“Xinjiang”) into the USSR as its 18th Soviet Socialist Republic. Stalin, in turn, forwarded the letter to Chiang Kai-shek, who removed Sheng from his post and brought him back to Chongqing, China.
Following Sheng’s departure, a rebellion slowly broke out in East Turkistan. In mid-August 1944, Uyghur and Turkic rebels locals formed the “Nilka Guerrillas” group led by Gheni Batur to secure independence for East Turkistan. They succeeded in capturing Nilka County on October 8th, 1944.
On November 7th, 1944, members of the East Turkistan National Liberation Organization led by Abdulkerim Abbasov and Alihan Tore attacked the KMT (Republic of China) police headquarters in Ghulja. At the same time, groups of other Uyghur, Kazakh, and other Turkic rebels began to attack the outskirts capturing the city of Ghulja by November 12th as Chinese government forces fled the city.
Creation of the Second ETR
On November 12, 1944, the East Turkistan National Liberation Organization held a large rally at the Uyghur, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz Club in Ghulja to proclaim East Turkistan’s independence as the East Turkistan Republic. The two prominent leaders of the East Turkistan National Liberation Organization, Alihan Tore, an ethnic Uzbek, was elected as the President, and Abdulkerim Abbasov, an Uyghur, was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs. Thus the East Turkistan Republic was officially declared.
Although the second East Turkistan Republic founders hadn’t drafted a comprehensive constitution for the newly established Republic before it declared independence, they announced the Nine Political Precepts (Toqquz Maddliq Siyasi Programma) as a precursor to a constitution.
Summary of the Nine Political Precepts:
- Rooting out the tyranny of the Han Chinese;
- Establishment of a democratic government;
- Creation of an armed forces belonging to the people;
- Equality for all ethnic groups;
- Granted the right to freedom of religion;
- Popular elections of government officials at all levels;
- Developing political and economic relations with friendly countries, especially the Soviet Union;
- Development of education, culture, and health;
- Adoption of the Uyghur script as the official written language of the East Turkistan Republic.
President Alihan Tore fiercely condemned Chinese rule over East Turkistan (what China calls “Xinjiang”) in his speech on November 12, 1944. He called on the Han [Chinese] government to stop creating pseudo-history about East Turkistan. He further called on China to “abandon its ambitions for the territory of East Turkistan, and find a way to liberate its own Chinese territories” from the Japanese.
He urged all the people of East Turkistan to “fight to liberate the entire nation from the tyranny of Chinese rule over the fatherland of East Turkistan,” stating it was not only a civic duty but also a religious duty.
On February 24, 1945, the Government Council announced Resolution No. 24.
"The most important objectives of the revolution for the liberation of East Turkistan are to topple the brutal rule of the Han Chinese, exterminate the savage Nationalist [Chinese] armies, and achieve the wish that our people have cherished for centuries: driving out the Han [Chinese] colonizers, and establishing a strong and prosperous [independent] state that cares for the people, with true equality for all ethnicities."
The second East Turkistan Republic, like the first ETR, was a functioning independent state satisfying all four criteria for statehood under the 1933 Montevideo Convention, recognized as declaratory of customary international law binding on all states. East Turkistan possessed a permanent population of seven million; a defined territory of 1,828,418 square kilometers ; a functioning government with a multi-ethnic national army including Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Sibe, and Mongol soldiers, demonstrating broad popular support for independence across all peoples, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.
East Turkistan National Army
On April 8, 1945, the founding of the East Turkistan Republic’s National Army was proclaimed with a large military parade. The armed groups scattered across that northwestern part of East Turkistan were organized into seven regiments, four independent battalions, and one independent company. General recruitment of all ethnic groups, except for the Chinese, was carried out by the East Turkistan National Army.
At its height in 1946, the East Turkistan National Army had over 50,000 active-duty troops and an estimated 100,000 reserve troops. Several departments were established under the East Turkistan National Army Headquarters, including Political Department, War Department, Military Administration Department, Cadre Department, Reconnaissance Department, and a Supply and Logistics Department. The National Army utilized Soviet technical advisors for training and logistics, a common practice for emerging states seeking to modernize their defense capabilities against colonial powers.
The East Turkistan National Army was armed with primarily German weaponry, some Soviet weaponry, and American weaponry captured from the Republic of China. Much of its initial arms were sold to the East Turkistan Republic by the Soviet Union. The East Turkistan National Army’s Artillery Division originally consisted of at least 12 field artillary cannons, two armored vehicles, and two tanks. A National Aviation Force was established with forty-two airplanes that the East Turkistan National Army had captured at a Republic of China (Nationalist China) airbase in Ghulja.
By July 1945, the East Turkistan National Army was conducting a three-front war advancing against the Republic of China’s positions in the rest of East Turkistan. On the Northern Front, the East Turkistan National Army succeeded in liberating the Targabatay and Altay region by September of 1945. On the Central Front, the East Turkistan National Army succeeded in liberating all territories west of the Manas River. The East Turkistan National Army crossed the Tengri Tagh (“Tianshan”) mountains on the Southern Front. It succeeded in liberating much of the northern parts of the Aksu region by September 1945 and set up a Kashgar Regiment to liberate Kashgar from Chinese occupation.
After hearing about the East Turkistan National Army’s impending arrival to all of southern East Turkistan, Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples across Kashgar, Yarkent, and other places across East Turkistan began to rebel against Chinese occupation. The East Turkistan Republic was rapidly expanding, but that came to a halt in October 1945.
The Republic of China (Nationalist China) sent Chinese warlord Ma Fuyang and his Hui (Chinese Muslim) army to reinforce the Republic of China troops and assist them in protecting Urumchi from an impending attack by the East Turkistan National Army. By early September 1945, over 100,000 Han and Hui Chinese troops had been deployed to East Turkistan under the command of the Republic of China’s KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party).
Soviet Pressure
In September 1945, the East Turkistan National Army captured Manas and made preparations to cross the Manas River to push eastward towards the main Republic of China stronghold in Urumchi. However, the Soviet military advisors suddenly pressured the ETR’s leadership to stop all of its military campaigns. The National Sovereignty of the ETR was underscored by President Alihan Tore’s defiant rejection of Soviet dictates. By fiercely advocating for the continued eastward advance against the pressure of a superpower, Tore demonstrated that the ETR was a fully sovereign state prioritizing its own national liberation. This defiance proves that the ETR was not an ‘autonomous’ proxy, but a supreme authority answering only to the will of the East Turkistani people.
Little did they, the East Turkistan Republic’s leadership, know that the future of their Republic had already been secretly negotiated and decided upon by world powers at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, signed by the Soviet Union and the Republic of China on August 14, 1945, revealed that the Soviet Union had already decided to sacrifice the East Turkistan Republic for more critical interests of national importance for the Soviets. The Soviet Union pledged to cease all aid to the East Turkistan Republic and tacitly gave the green light for the Republic of China to suppress the East Turkistan Republic.
Soviets pressured the East Turkistan Republic’s leadership to enter peace negotiations with the Republic of China. The East Turkistan Republic’s leadership became divided as President Alihan Tore, and his supporters in the East Turkistan Republic’s Government Council fiercely opposed the idea of peace negotiation with China. He condemned the peace negotiations as “an action betraying the interests of the Uyghur people, an action betraying the achievements of the revolution, and an action to court the favor of the Chinese.”
Despite opposition from half of the Government, on October 2, 1945, the East Turkistan Republic issued a resolution responding to the Chinese Government’s call for negotiations. The resolution stated that the East Turkistan Republic was willing to negotiate with the Republic of China on the basis that the East Turkistan Republic would continue to seek independence for all of East Turkistan’s territories.
On January 5, 1946, just three days before the “Eleven Articles of Peace” was signed by the delegation led by Foreign Minister Ahmetjan Qasimi and the Republic of China, the Republic of China officially recognized the establishment of the Mongolian People’s Republic (Mongolia). The “Eleven Articles of Peace” called for extended peace talks and the creation of a coalition government formed by Chinese and other Turkic peoples based on ethnic equality. During the peace talks, the faction of the East Turkistan Republic led by President Alihan Tore continued to oppose the peace talks and persuaded the Government Council of the East Turkistan Republic to issue a series of resolutions emphasizing the nature of the East Turkistan Republic as an independent state.
Summary of Resolutions passed:
- Resolution No. 110 – October 15, 1945: Declares November 7 as Memorial Day for the East Turkistan Revolution.
- Resolution No. 113 – October 22, 1945: Declares November 12 as East Turkistan Independence Day.
- Resolution No. 185 – January 5, 1946: Formation of civil servant wage system.
- Resolution No.197 – January 12, 1946: Fixation of national taxes and tax rates.
- Resolution No. 203 – January 13, 1946: Establishment of State Administrative System.
- Resolution No. 235 – March 5, 1946: Standards for military promotion and banning the circulation of Chinese currency in East Turkistan markets.
- Resolution No. 249 – March 28, 1946: Declares April 8 as Memorial Day for the Founding of the National Army.
- On April 4, 1946 the official newspaper of the East Turkistan Republic — Free East Turkistan (Azat Sherqiy Turkistan) — published a fiercely worded editorial entitled “Negotiations in Process”:
“If the Chinese government fails to hand over all power to us in compliance with our terms, and continues to implement the policies of the colonialist system, then we must continue to fight. If your objectives are not achieved, we wove to fight on, through bloody sacrifice and war, to liberate the whole of East Turkistan and establish our own eternal state.”
The Decline of the ETR
At the onset of the “peace talks,” the Republic of China (Nationalist China) government in Chongqing dispatched General Zhang Zhizong, Director of the Military Council, and installed him as a colonial Governor. Accompanying him were three Uyghur agents from Chongqing: Isa Yusuf Alptekin, Masud Sabri, and Muhammed Emin Bughra. These individuals were fully integrated into the Chinese state apparatus; Alptekin, for instance, was a Senior Adviser in China’s Defense Ministry and a member of the Chinese parliament (Legislative Yuan), falsely claiming to represent “Xinjiang Province.”
The KMT exploited these “Three Gentlemen” as political weapons to dismantle the East Turkistan Republic from within. Their mission was to deceive the people of East Turkistan into trading their sovereign independence for hollow “autonomy” under Chinese occupation. Consequently, the East Turkistan Republic formally denounced these individuals as “traitors to the nation” and “puppets of the KMT,” identifying their role as agents sent to fragment national unity and facilitate the total annihilation of the East Turkistani lineage.
The “peace talks” triggered significant internal strife within the ETR Government Council. A pro-Soviet faction, led by Abdulkerim Abbasov, began to marginalize the nationalist faction led by President Alihan Tore. On May 1, 1946, the Soviet Union—acting in its own geopolitical interest—imposed a “Final Mediated Plan” designed to strip the ETR of its military advantage:
The East Turkistan National Army (ETNA) was to be downsized and reformed, with KMT-supervised regiments stationed in Urumchi, Kashgar, and Aksu.
A Commander-in-Chief would be installed as a mere deputy within the Chinese “Xinjiang Provincial Government.”
While Chinese forces were prohibited from the Three Regions (Ili, Tarbagatay, and Altay), the ETR was forced to disband its political police and reduce its defensive footprint.
On June 6, 1946, despite fierce opposition from the nationalist leadership, the “Second Addendum to the Peace Terms” was signed. This marked a dark day for the Republic. Simultaneously, Soviet advisors abandoned the ETR, and representatives of the Soviet Consulate detained and forcibly escorted President Alihan Tore and his staff to Almaty. He was subsequently placed under house arrest in Tashkent, where he remained until his death in 1976—effectively a political prisoner of the Soviet-Chinese collusion.
Following the signing, the ETR maintained its National Sovereignty by insisting on the right to total independence. Although the Republic honored the agreement by downsizing to 12,000 active troops, it remained a distinct state entity.
In July 1946, a “Xinjiang Provincial Coalition Government” was established, with ETR leaders like Ahmatjan Qasimi and Abdulkerim Abbasov taking dual roles as a diplomatic maneuver. However, the ETR leadership quickly realized that the Chinese had no intention of honoring ethnic equality or constitutional rights. In February 1947, Ahmatjan Qasimi officially rejected the coalition and withdrew, reasserting the ETR’s status as an independent state.
Qasimi’s subsequent mission to the Chinese National Assembly in Nanjing further proved that bilateral relations were impossible with an occupying power. He declared that the people of East Turkistan had risen in rebellion to secure their fundamental rights. Although the Republic was temporarily prevented from launching new military campaigns due to a dual economic blockade by the Soviet Union and China, its government never wavered in its mandate: the complete liberation of East Turkistan from Chinese rule.
The Fall of the ETR
On July 12, 1947, Foreign Minister Ahmetjan Qasim and Interior Minister Rahimjan Sabir wrote a letter to the Soviet Consul in Urumchi pleading for the Soviet Union and Stalin to protect the interests of East Turkistan and its people. On September 10, 1947, the Soviet Council of Ministers offered four proposals to support the East Turkistan Republic. The proposals included covertly supporting Uyghur rebels in Turpan with military aid, providing immediate military assistance to the East Turkistan Republic, and assisting Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples to expand their anti-Chinese occupation partisan movements in Aksu, Kucha, and Kashgar. However, many of these proposals were never followed through because of Stalin’s objection.
On April 24, 1948, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union privately held a meeting to announce measures to support the East Turkistan Republic. Some of the actions included giving financial and military aid and sending back Uyghurs and other Turkic people who had left East Turkistan to study in the Soviet Union to East Turkistan to help strengthen the administration, economy, and military of the East Turkistan Republic.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union continued to negotiate with Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party over East Turkistan’s status. On February 4, 1949, a meeting between the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party was held. Anastas Mikoyan, the Vice Premier of the Soviet Council of Ministers, met with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. Mao raised the issue of “reunifying” Outer Mongolia (independent) and Inner Mongolia (under Chinese control) and incorporating it into his future People’s Republic of China. Mikoyan rejected this proposal, and then Mao mentioned the existence of a Communist Party in East Turkistan, which Mikoyan stated, “there is no Communist Party, but there is a national independence movement.” Mao stressed that he wanted to include “Xinjiang” (East Turkistan) as a part of China. He emphasized that he would “not grant independence but autonomy” to the region.
By June 1949, the Soviet Union had agreed to let Mao take over East Turkistan. On June 27, 1949, Stalin met with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) delegation led by Liu Shiaoqi, the Secretary of the CCP’s Central Committee, and Gao Geng, a Politburo member of the CCP, where a $300 million dollar low-interest loan to China was discussed. Stalin urged the Chinese Communist Party to quickly invade and occupy East Turkistan before the English attempted to intervene. He also stated that the Chinese population in East Turkistan didn’t exceed 5% and recommended the CCP bring up the percentage of the Chinese population to 30% after taking over East Turkistan to develop the region and strengthen China’s border protection.
In August 1949, the Chinese Communist Party sent a small covert reconnaissance team led by Deng Liqun to the East Turkistan Republic’s capital of Ghulja with the help of the Soviets. Meanwhile, the East Turkistan Republic’s senior leadership, including Foreign Minister Ahmetjan Qasim, Interior Minister Abdukerim Abbasov, Commander of the East Turkistan National Army Isaqbek Munonow, Deputy Commander Delilqan Sugurbayev, and their staff totaling 14 people were called to a meeting in Moscow. On August 24, 1949, they boarded a plane in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The Soviet Union informed Seypidin Azizi, the Education Minister of the East Turkistan Republic, that their plane “crashed” on August 27, 1949, and there were no survivors. Azizi was told to keep quiet and make preparations to travel to Beijing.
Official records from that period show that an Il-12P airplane of the Aeroflot company crashed on Thursday, August 25, 1949, in the village of Kabansk (Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) on Mount Kabanya, killing 14 people.
However, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, some former KGB generals and high officers, among them Pavel Sudoplatov, revealed that the five leaders were killed on Stalin’s orders in Moscow on August 27, 1949, after three-day imprisonment in the former Tsar’s stables. The ETR’s leadership had been allegedly arrested upon arrival in Moscow by the Head of MGB, Colonel-General Viktor Abakumov, who personally interrogated the ETR’s leaders, then ordered their execution. Meanwhile, in East Turkistan, some 30 other senior leaders of the East Turkistan Republic were arrested by the Soviets and disappeared.
On September 12, 1949, Mao sent a telegram to Stalin asking for 40 planes to transport an entire division of the PLA into Urumchi to occupy East Turkistan quickly. Seypidin Azizi and two others traveled to Beijing and signed a secret treaty agreeing to incorporate East Turkistan into China. Seypidin Azizi was promised a high-level position in the government that the CCP would create after the Chinese occupied East Turkistan. He was also promised that the PRC would develop East Turkistan and withdraw its forces from East Turkistan within three to five years.
On October 1, 1949, Mao announced the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. On October 12, 1949, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ‘s 2nd Army, led by WAng Zhen, Guo Peng and Wang Enmao at the instruction of Peng Dehuai, crossed the Jiuquan-Yumen-Anxi line separating East Turkistan and China. Thus officially starting the People’s Republic of China’s invasion of East Turkistan.On October 14, 1949, Stalin sent a telegram to Mao, agreeing to airlift an entire division of the PLA into Urumchi, with an expected date of arrival being 1-3 November 1949. By October 18, 1949, the PLA had already reached Turpan, and their first units arrived in Urumchi on October 20, 1949.
Various military leaders of the East Turkistan Republic became anxious and called on the Government to prepare to defend the East Turkistan Republic but were prevented by Seypidin Azizi and the Soviets.
Most of the Republic of China (Nationalist) ‘s puppet “Xinjiang Government” officials and its forces in Urumchi, including the puppet “Governor” Burhan Shahidi and others, suddenly switched sides and welcomed the Chinese Communist Party. On December 7, 1949, the 100,000+ troops of the Republic of China (Nationalist China) stationed around Urumchi were incorporated into the PLA as its 22nd Corps.
Shortly after the PLA had consolidated control in Urumchi and most of the eastern parts of East Turkistan, including Turpan and Qumul, Seypidin publicly announced in mid-December 1949 that the leaders of the East Turkistan Republic had “died in a plane crash on their way to Beijing.”
On December 20, 1949, members of the PLA entered Ghulja, the capital of the East Turkistan Republic. The East Turkistan Republic was officially dissolved on December 22, 1949, merging the East Turkistan National Army into the PLA’s 5th Army Corps. December 22, 1949, marked the end of East Turkistan’s independence and the beginning of the Chinese Communist occupation of East Turkistan, which continues today.
Aftermath
Following the occupation of East Turkistan by the People’s Republic of China, many Uyghurs in East Turkistan, led by Isa Yusuf Alptekin and Muhammed Emin Bughra, fled to India. Isa Yusuf Alptekin, a long-time Chinese loyalist, was previously appointed the “Secretary-General of the Xinjiang Provincial Government” by the KMT-led Republic of China in 1947, and Muhammed Emin Bughra had also been appointed as the “Governor of the Xinjiang Provincial Government” in 1947.
They arrived in Kashmir in early 1950 with several thousand Uyghurs from Khotan, Kashgar, Urumchi, and other parts of East Turkistan. Upon arriving there, Alptekin began to contact the US, Indian, and Turkish governments, falsely claiming to be the “Secretary General of East Turkistan.”
Yulbars Khan, an Uyghur from Qumul who was also working for the KMT-led Republic of China, led Hui forces to fight against the PLA from 1949-to 1950. After much of his Hui forces deserted and switched sides to the CCP, Yulbars Khan fled to Taiwan. In Taiwan, he was appointed as “Governor of Xinjiang” by Chiang Kai-shek and held the title until he died in 1971.
Meanwhile, Uyghurs and Kazakhs continued to resist Chinese occupation. One of the prominent leaders of resistance was Osman Islam (Batur), who had once been the Governor of Altay under the East Turkistan Republic. His forces continued to engage in guerrilla attacks against the PLA until his capture and execution on April 29, 1951. After Osman Batur’s death, many of his followers fled to India and later resettled in Turkey.
As the PLA marched down into southern East Turkistan, they were met with resistance in Khotan and Kashgar but were quickly able to suppress the resistance. However, small-scale resistance against Chinese occupation continued across East Turkistan. Resistance to Chinese occupation was brutally suppressed. According to a Urumqi Radio report on January 1, 1952, a total of 120,000 ‘enemies of China’ had been eliminated in East Turkistan. Another report from the same radio station in March 1954 said that 30,000 “local counter-revolutionary insurgents” were eliminated in East Turkistan, making a total of 150,000 killed in the first five years of Chinese occupation.
By 1954, the PRC had managed to control all of East Turkistan fully and began to initiate its colonial policies. Mao ordered the CCP to set up the Bingtuan ‘Xinjiang Paramilitary Production Corps (XPCC)’ by transferring an additional 300,000 Han Chinese soldiers and their families to settle in East Turkistan. The primary goal of the Bingtuan was to colonize East Turkistan’s lands most rich in natural and mineral resources; it also had the duty of assisting the PLA in suppressing rebellions. The Bingtuan (XPCC) has an estimated 3.5 million personnel as of 2020.
Many Uyghur and other Turkic leaders in the government became upset with Chinese rule and wrote numerous letters to Beijing urging them to keep their promises. Mao unilaterally designating East Turkistan as the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” in October 1955. The PRC gave a few Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples, including former East Turkistan Republic officials, some high positions in the “Autonomous Region.”
An underground East Turkistan Revolutionary Party had been created by former ETR officials calling for the restoration of East Turkistan’s independence. Growing frustrated with the PRC’s oppressive rule, in 1956, 51 prominent Uyghur and other Turkic leaders, led by former East Turkistan National Army General Memtimin Iminov, wrote a letter to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai demanding the PRC to respect its initial promises and withdraw its forces from East Turkistan.
Over a decade later, General Iminov would be detained and killed in a military hospital; the Chinese government stated he died from an illness. The rest of those who signed the letter were also purged, and the PRC began to take an even more brutal approach by arresting tens of thousands of Uyghurs, executing many of them and labeling them as “counter revolutionaries,” “foreign agents,” and “ethnic nationalists.”
Even today, the Chinese governments’ attempts to eradicate East Turkistan and its people have not stopped, and neither has the resistance.