According to the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, some 50 global experts on genocide studies, East Turkistan, international law, and Chinese ethnic policies participated in examining available evidence collected, including testimonies of victims and witnesses, satellite imagery analysis, public Chinese State communications, leaked Chinese government documents, and analysis of information from various sources.”
Whilst the report itself falls short of making and recommendations on subsequent courses of action it does make it “very clear, through evidence, that the Chinese State is engaged in systematic genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. The report also highlights the historical context of China’s genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples by mentioning the fact that the Qing Dynasty had invaded East Turkistan in 1759. ”
In late February, The Taiwan Times spoke to the Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, Salih Hudayar, with Mr. Hudayar explaining the plight of his people in depth.
The Uyghurs and other Turkic people of the region correctly termed East Turkistan but often called Xinjiang – a Chinese name – in global media has a history of resisting outside occupation, “rebelling some 42 times from 1759 to 1863” according to the East Turkistan authorities.
Since January 21st this year “the U.S. Government, the Parliaments of Canada, and the Netherlands have officially recognized China’s atrocities against the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan as genocide” in “a move that has been welcomed by the East Turkistan Government in Exile and East Turkistanis worldwide” although authorities in China and at Chinese missions around the world have “repeatedly denied the genocide and continues to engage in genocide.”
Of note, however, has been the reluctance of President Joe Biden of the US and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada to use the term in relation to China.
“China’s shameless denial of its ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples shouldn’t be left unanswered,” the Government in Exile responded to China in a tweet on Tuesday. “The U.S. and other countries should bring the genocide to the agenda of the UN Security Council and ACT to end it” authorities added.
The report went on to indicate that the “genocide exacerbated with President Xi Jinping launching the “People’s War on Terror” in 2014 against the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan. Top government officials responded to Xi by issuing orders to “round up everyone who should be rounded up,’ ‘wipe them out completely … destroy them root and branch,’ and ‘break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins” with Chinese “government officials (describing) the Uyghurs in “dehumanizing terms and repeatedly likened the mass internment of Uyghurs to ‘eradicating tumors.’” The report highlights that although it is estimated that there are 1-2 million Uyghurs in interment camps, which the U.S. Department of Defense described as upwards of 3 million people in concentration camps, this doesn’t include the number of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples that have been given official prison sentences from 5 years to life.”
“China is engaging in genocide, as defined under The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan (renamed Xinjiang),” said the ETGE Prime Minister Salih Hudayar“ adding that “The international community must fulfill its OBLIGATIONS and ACT to end China’s ongoing genocide.”
“We call on the United States to bring the East Turkistan issue to the agenda of the UN Security Council and lead the world in taking meaningful action, in accordance to the UN Genocide Convention and the UN’s Responsibility to Protect Commitment, to bring a swift end to China’s genocide in East Turkistan,” said ETGE President Ghulam Osman Yaghma.