October 12 marks a solemn day for Uyghurs as they remember the 1949 Chinese military invasion of East Turkistan, now called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Last October, Uyghurs and supporters gathered outside the White House to commemorate 75 years of occupation and demand justice.
Since 1949, China has imposed a brutal regime of genocide, colonization, and repression on the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. These include mass detention, forced labor, sterilization, cultural erasure, and systematic surveillance. While the region has deep historical roots as an independent East Turkistan, China’s territorial claims are politically, not historically, grounded.
Despite the U.S. and over a dozen Western countries labeling China’s actions as genocide and the U.N. reporting possible crimes against humanity, meaningful international action has been lacking. A 2024 report titled “Side Effects” exposed the global pharmaceutical industry’s links to forced labor in Xinjiang, raising alarm over global complicity.
Uyghurs have been subjected to large-scale internment since Xi Jinping’s “Strike Hard” campaign began in 2014. These so-called “vocational centers” serve to indoctrinate Uyghurs into loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. Security spending in the region has skyrocketed, with domestic surveillance and militarization growing tenfold since 2007.
Cultural erasure is another strategy. Human Rights Watch reports that over 600 Uyghur villages have been renamed to strip religious or historical significance. This, according to human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat, reflects a goal to “eradicate the Uyghur people entirely.”
Mamtimin Ala, president of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, urges nations to recognize East Turkistan as an occupied country and support its right to self-determination. Without global accountability, China’s genocidal campaign will persist with impunity—posing a threat not just to Uyghurs, but to human rights worldwide.