The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) congratulates the newly elected President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump. The people of the United States democratically elected the new President, on November 5, 2024. The WUC highlights the importance of free and democratic elections, in light of our own recent elections.
Whilst we welcome the new Administration, the WUC thanks the previous Biden administration for its policy-based response to the Uyghur genocide.
The WUC hopes that the new administration will prioritise the Uyghur genocide in its foreign policy agenda and will continue to build on the existing work of the outgoing administation, which has worked diligently to raise the issue on both national and international forums.
‘’We congratulate the newly elected president of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump. We will work with the new administration to ensure that Uyghurs’ voices are heard,’’ said the WUC President, Turgunjan Alawdun. ‘’We are grateful for the Biden administration for having consistently raised the Uyghur issue and for having implemented concrete measures to address it.’’
During the first Trump administration, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the atrocities in East Turkistan, as genocide. Under the Biden administration, the US government confirmed this statement and officially labeled the atrocities against the Uyghurs as “genocide”. It has also introduced multiple rounds of sanctions against Chinese officials and entities linked to Uyghur forced labour and surveillance systems.
In 2021, President Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act into law, which bans imports from East Turkistan with a rebuttable presumption. This legislation extended to sectors such as cotton, tomatoes, and solar panels.
At the multilateral level, under President Biden, the U.S. has worked with allies to issue joint statements condemning China’s treatment of Uyghurs and Turkic people and to strengthen multilateral actions. Through the G7, NATO, and the UN, the Biden administration has rallied international partners to denounce the atrocities and call for accountability on China. In October 2022, the U.S. was a key country leading the introduction of the first resolution on the Uyghur issue at the Human Rights Council.
The mounting evidence of the severe suffering of Uyghurs and Turkic people of East Turkistan highlights the urgency for meaningful and collective action to be taken.
In light of this, the WUC urges the new administration to meaningfully address the Uyghur genocide, both domestically and multilaterally, in close cooperation with allies. The WUC is committed to working with the Trump administration to ensure the Uyghur genocide becomes a priority.