“Resist China” Plea Repressed Groups

A flag-raising ceremony took place over Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and millions of Chinese citizens began holiday travel on October 1 in celebration of the 71^st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Meanwhile, hundreds of protests, organized by Chinese expats and concerned citizens, took place around the globe in resistance to the brutal repression of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). One such protest took place just outside the halls of the U.S. Congress at the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.

International organization Resist China led the October 1 Global Day of Action in solidarity with Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, Tibetans, and Chinese – all of whom they see as victims of the unrestrained repression of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who commemorates the first of October as a day of victory and the day Mao Zedong raised China’s first Communist national flag.

Worldwide, more than one hundred and twenty allied organizations participated in the protests to resist Chinese Communist Party tyranny.

Organizers of the Washington, D.C. demonstration included Students for a Free Tibet, World Uyghur Congress, Campaigns for Uyghurs, Capital Area Tibetan Association, Uyghur American Association, Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, Uyghur Human Rights Project, Victims of Communism, Formosan Association for Public Affairs, We the Hong Kongers, International Campaign for Tibet, Tibetan Youth Congress, Initiative for China, China Against Death Penalty, Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC), DC4HK – Washingtonians Supporting Hong Kong, and Humanitarian China.

According to the event’s Facebook invitation, the purpose of the day was to “demonstrate that the United States and the international community stand for freedom, human rights, and democracy.”

The event was marked by a chilling piece of political theater – 100 Uyghur activists acted out a show to illustrate CCP repression. Uyghur activists dressed in blue vests eerily similar to those seen worn by Uyghurs in video footage of actual CCP Uyghur “reeducation” camps.

Uyghurs, a majority-Muslim ethnic group who regard themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations, have lived in eastern Turkestan for centuries. This area, part of which lies in the modern-day Chinese province of Xinjiang, came under firm CCP control in 1949.

Today, an estimated eleven million Uyghurs live in Xinjiang Province. Reports show between 1.5-2 million Muslim Uyghurs are currently detained in what the CCP deems to be “reeducation” camps. The CCP has been accused of committing gross human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, including forced sterilization of Uyghur women, forced labor, indoctrination, and the destruction of Uyghur cultural sites.

On Thursday, the political theater piece aimed to show these gross abuses. This included showing the humiliation and stripping of religious wear of a young Uyghur girl and the forced internment of a Uyghur man for “illegally” calling relatives overseas.

According to the event’s online invitation, organizers aimed to “send a clear message to [Chinese President] Xi Jinping and his authoritarian government that the international community does not accept the ongoing brutal occupation of Tibet, the internment of millions of Uyghur Muslims, the denial of Hong Kongers’ basic rights, the erasure of Southern Mongolian culture and language, the ongoing military intimidation and geopolitical bullying of Taiwan, and the ruthless persecution of Chinese citizens.”

President Donald Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 into law on June 17. The law imposes sanctions on foreign individuals and entities responsible for human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region, and requires various incremental reports on the topic to be sent to Congress.

On July 14, President Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which imposes sanctions on officials and entities in Hong Kong as well as in mainland China that are deemed to help violate Hong Kong’s autonomy, and punishes financial institutions that do business with them.

This came after the June 30 passing of the Hong Kong “National Security Law” by China’s top legislature, which essentially stifles any dissent in Hong Kong, which is officially an area autonomous from mainland China, and had been since 1997 under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

The October 1 Global Day of Action in Washington commenced in interfaith prayer led by various religious leaders, and one can only hope that such demonstrations will prompt greater action, condemnation, and pushback against the Chinese Communist Party’s mounting repression of ethnic and religious minorities.