UHRP Marks 77 Years Since CCP’s Takeover of East Turkistan: Calls for Urgent International Action
For immediate release
October 1, 2026, 12:00 p.m. EDT
Contact: Omer Kanat, +1 (202) 790-1795
On the 71st anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s proclamation of the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) calls on governments, international institutions, and civil society to reject Beijing’s propaganda and take concrete steps to hold China accountable for its ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uyghur people.
“From the very beginning, the so-called autonomy promised to Uyghurs was an illusion,” said UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat. “What Beijing calls autonomy is a roadmap for occupation and genocide.”
On October 1, 1955, the CCP claimed to grant “autonomy” to Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. In reality, this marked the consolidation of Beijing’s control over East Turkistan and the beginning of seven decades of repression. Far from self-rule, the anniversary represents a systematic project of occupation, assimilation, and erasure.
On July 1, 2026, the Chinese government’s new “Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress” took effect, codifying Xi Jinping’s assimilation policies nationwide. The law expanded state control over language, religion, education, and family life while further eroding the promise of regional autonomy.
While China celebrates October 1 as National Day, Uyghurs worldwide remember it as a day of dispossession and grief. In East Turkistan today, Uyghurs face internment, forced labor, surveillance, family separation, and the criminalization of religious and cultural practices.
UHRP urges governments to:
- Publicly reject Beijing’s propaganda surrounding the so-called anniversary;
- Strengthen enforcement of forced labor import bans and sanctions against perpetrators;
- Push for international accountability mechanisms at the UN and beyond;
- Support Uyghur communities in exile who continue to resist cultural erasure.
Read more:
China’s ‘Ethnic Unity’ Law is Already Harming Uyghurs, by Omer Kanat, August 6, 2026
Forced Allegiance: Reflections on Flag-raising Ceremonies and National Anthems in Britain and East Turkistan, by Dr. Henryk Szadziewski, September 30, 2025
False “Success in Xinjiang Governance”: A Critique of the CCP White Paper “The Successful Practice of the Party’s Xinjiang Governance Strategy in the New Era,” by Asiye Uyghur, September 29, 2025
UHRP Condemns White Paper Whitewashing 70 Years of Repression of Uyghurs, September 24, 2025