Protests erupt on sidelines of NATO Summit, urging to stop Chinese imperialism in Xinjiang region

The representatives of the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) have urged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations to raise the issue and stand against the atrocities inflicted by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) upon the Uyghur community of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

The move by the ETGE came on the sidelines of the NATO Summit being organized in Washington from July 9 to July 11 this year.

In a post on ‘X’, Salih Hudayar, Foreign Affairs and Security Minister of ETGE said, “As the NATO Summit convenes, we urge NATO to recognize and confront Chinese imperialism. We call on NATO to stand with East Turkistan in our fight for independence and justice.”

“NATO must take decisive actions against Chinese Expansionism and China’s ongoing Uyghur Genocide,” Hudayar added.

Hudayar, in a video message further urged the NATO to address the pressing challenges that threaten very principles of independence, justice, and collective security.

“For 75 years, NATO has stood as a bastion against tyranny and oppression. It has been a beacon of hope for countless people around the world who seek to live with independence and dignity, we must turn NATO’s attention to one of the most urgent threats of our time, the expansionist and imperialist ambition of the Chinese state,” he added.

Hudayar also noted, “On December 22, 1949, the independent East Turkestan Republic was forcibly overthrown by the PRC. Since then, our homeland has been the site of systematic colonization, genocide, crimes against humanity, and unimaginable suffering.”

The Chinese government has forcibly detained millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in concentration camps, and prisons subjecting them to enslavement through forced labour and seeking to erase our language, our religion, our traditions, and our very existence, he said.

Hudayar continued, “These actions of the Chinese imperialists are not isolated incidents but are part of a broader strategy of Chinese imperialism that threatens global security and undermines the international rules-based order.”

Additionally, the ETGE leader in his statement also said, “We see it in their aggressive territorial claims in the Southeast Asia Sea and in the Pacific, their economic coercion through their multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and their cyber espionage targeting critical infrastructure worldwide.”

These actions are a clear and present danger to the principles of democracy, individual liberty, sovereignty, independence, and the rule of law, the very principles that NATO was founded to defend, he stressed.

The ETGE leader called it a global fight for independence, sovereignty, democracy, and human rights. “If we allow China’s unchecked aggression to continue, the world risks undermining the very principles upon which NATO was founded,” Hudayar said.