Remembering the plight of East Turkestan

Due to a family vacation, the next News of the Day will be on Monday, August 29. However, tomorrow – or to be more exact, this afternoon in the Eastern U.S./Canada Time Zone – will be the anniversary of the death of independent East Turkestan. In honor of those who died that day, and all those murdered since, yours truly presents the following:

Fifty-six years ago today, a plane carrying the leadership of the Republic of East Turkestan was on its way to Beijing for talks with Mao Zedong. In circumstances that can at best be called suspicious, the plane crashed, killing everyone on board. Upon hearing the news, Mao sent in the Communist military, and the occupation of East Turkestan began.

In the more than half century since, the people of East Turkestan – known generally as the Uighurs, although there are also ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Kazakhs there – have been brutally persecuted. Mosques have been razed to the ground. Political prisoners have been shot – after show trials in which they are branded as terrorists. In a pattern Tibet watchers will find all too familiar, the Communists have sent wave upon wave of Han Chinese to East Turkestan to reduce the Uighur majority there (this has been so successful the Uighurs are soon to become a minority in their own land, if they aren’t already). Large-scale development projects, ordered by the Communist leadership in Beijing, are set up as economic colonies, with all the jobs going to ethnic Chinese. In some of the major cities in East Turkestan, ethnic Chinese outnumber native Uighurs by 9 to 1. Even the name East Turkestan is nearly lost to history; Communist China has insisted all call the occupied nation “Xinjiang.”

Many who have suffered under Communist persecution, especially ethnic minorities within Communist China and occupied Tibetans, have similar experiences, but the East Turkestani people have two other painful effects that are all their own – nuclear fallout, and the Communist slander of “terrorism.”

For nearly four decades, Communist China has conducted nuclear testing in East Turkestan. Most of these tests were conducted above ground, in open air, with no concern for those who would suffer from the nuclear fallout. Over 200,000 have died, and tens of thousands more have fallen ill with cancer.

For over five decades, Communist China desperately tried to keep all of this a secret, let anyone feel sympathetic to the anti-Communist resistance in East Turkestan. On September 11, 2001, that all changed. While America licked its wounds, and the people of East Turkestan expressed their sympathy and support for the United States to anyone who would listen, Communist China saw an opportunity to smear the entire occupied nation for its own benefit. Suddenly, resistance to Communism in East Turkestan was supposedly everywhere, and according to Beijing, all it was tied to and supported by Osama bin Laden. Never mind that bin Laden himself never uttered one word about East Turkestan. Never mind that bin Laden himself was allowed to use Communist Chinese front companies on stock exchanges around the world to launder drug money for his terrorist operations. Never mind that East Turkestanis have shown themselves to be the most pro-American Muslims on Earth, to the point that in cities and towns throughout the occupied nation, the most popular scarf is modeled on the Stars and Stripes (third, third, second, second, and second items).

However, today’s significance goes far beyond the Communist occupation of what was once a free land. As America fights the terror triumvirate of Wahabbism, Ba’athism, and Khomeinism, her people have asked: where are the Muslims who don’t hate America? Where are the Muslims who do not see the fulfillment of their faith in emulating the hijackers of September 11, 2001? Where are the Muslims who understand us, our vision, and our desire for freedom for all?

Those of us fortunate enough to know the people of East Turkestan do not ask these questions. We don’t have to ask them. We see these Muslims every day; we work with them; we are proud to call them our friends. We also know who Communist China considers its friends. It has signed economic agreements with Wahabbists in the Taliban (second and third items), and helped Osama bin Laden launder money. It has sold arms to Saddam Hussein, in some cases for millions of dollars in oil-for-food-vouchers. It has been involved in every major step of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and has been the Khomeinist regime’s largest missile parts benefactor.

While Communist China fights phantom terrorists in East Turkestan, it arms and enables real terrorists throughout the world as “some kind of check on U.S. power.” Thus East Turkestan’s resistance to Communist China is in fact the complete opposite of what the Communists say it is. By forcing Zhongnanhai to divert its energies, the East Turkestanis have limited, not enhanced, the anti-American forces of terrorism. In resisting Communism, East Turkestanis make America safer every day.

Last September, East Turkestan found its voice again, with the formation of the East Turkestan government in exile. If you have any time this weekend, please take a look at what they are trying to do to resist the occupation of their homeland, and the systematic annihilation of their people.

Fifty-six years ago today, Communist occupation of East Turkestan began. On this day, let us join them in their sorrow, and let them know they will never be forgotten. God Bless the American, Chinese, and Uighur peoples.