CHICAGO – Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign is deeply concerned following President Donald Trump’s recent visit to China, during which he failed to publicly address the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan.
The silence stands in stark contrast to the U.S. government’s 2021 determination recognizing China’s actions against the Uyghurs as genocide. The omission sends a troubling signal at a time when new evidence continues to emerge about the scale of abuses taking place under Chinese rule.
Last month, German outlet Der Spiegel reported testimony from former Chinese police officer Zhang Yabo, who confirmed ongoing atrocities in East Turkistan, including torture, sexual violence, deaths resulting from abuse, and the suppression of Islamic religious practices.
“Uyghurs who survived detention camps and families waiting for justice hoped this visit would bring renewed international pressure on Beijing,” said Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, President of Justice For All. “Instead, the world witnessed silence in the face of genocide. Economic interests should never come before human dignity and fundamental human rights.”
Failing to publicly confront China over its abuses risks normalizing repression and emboldening authoritarian governments worldwide.
“History will remember who chose profits over principles while an entire people were being crushed under a genocidal system,” said Arslan Hidayat, Team Lead for the Save Uyghur Campaign. “Uyghurs are enduring mass surveillance, forced labor, torture, rape, family separation, and the destruction of their faith and identity. Survivors, leaked documents, satellite evidence, and even former Chinese police officers have exposed the truth. Silence from world leaders is not neutrality, it is complicity.
The Save Uyghur Campaign calls on the United States and the international community to move beyond symbolic statements and take concrete action to hold the Chinese government accountable. The Save Uyghur campaign urges expanded sanctions against Chinese officials and companies linked to abuses in East Turkistan, stronger enforcement of bans on Uyghur forced labor imports, diplomatic boycotts of Chinese state initiatives, restrictions on technology exports used for surveillance and repression, and a reassessment of trade relationships that enable Beijing to continue its atrocities without consequence.