Dünya Uygur Kongresi (DUK), 25 Eylül 2025’te yaptığı açıklamada, Çin Devlet Başkanı Şi Cinping’in Salı günü Urumçi’ye yaptığı ziyareti kınadı ve bunu, Uygurların devam eden soykırım altında acı çekmeye devam ettiği bir dönemde insanlığa karşı işlenen suçları aklamayı amaçlayan bir propaganda gösterisi olarak nitelendirdi.
Xi traveled to Urumchi to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the so-called Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. According to Chinese state media, he was greeted by orchestrated crowds of Uyghur performers and children waving flags. For Uyghurs, however, the WUC said this spectacle amounted to a “bitter insult,” masking the reality of internment camps, forced labour, intrusive surveillance, family separations, and the systematic erasure of their culture.
During the visit, Xi emphasized “stability, economic growth, and ethnic harmony.” The WUC argued these slogans in practice mean pervasive surveillance and repression, economic exploitation rooted in forced labour and land seizures, and coerced marriages designed to assimilate Uyghurs.
“This visit was not about celebration—it was about whitewashing crimes against humanity,” WUC President Turgunjan Alawdun said in a statement.
The visit came just days after China’s State Council released a new White Paper on September 19, which claimed Beijing’s policies had brought “happiness” to Uyghurs. The Uyghur Human Rights Project has already dismissed the document as dangerous propaganda.
The White Paper sets out a five-pillar strategy—rule by law, ethnic unity, cultural identity, prosperity, and long-term Party leadership—while boasting of GDP growth, rising tourism, and civil-military projects in the region. The WUC and rights groups argue that such indicators obscure the coercive measures underpinning them, including the suppression of the Uyghur language, forced alignment of religion with state ideology, and a surveillance regime that leaves no space for civic or religious freedoms.
By conflating development with human rights and shielding itself from criticism through measures such as the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, Beijing is attempting to legitimize policies widely condemned as violations of international law, the WUC warned.
The WUC is calling on governments, international organizations, and media outlets to reject Beijing’s narratives, hold China accountable, and stand with the Uyghur people. The group urged the global community to reinforce concerns raised in the 2022 Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report, as well as China’s Universal Periodic Review and other UN Treaty Body Reviews.
Be First to Comment