Washington DC [US], April 11 : The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) is calling for an immediate international investigation into the infiltration of Uyghur diaspora organisations by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), following the arrest of Dilshat Reshit, a spokesperson and co-founder of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), on espionage charges for China, as reported in an ETGE release.
Documents from a Swedish court have confirmed Reshit's arrest on suspicion of spying on Uyghur communities for Chinese intelligence. The ETGE considers this a deeply troubling development that reinforces longstanding warnings by East Turkistani leaders about Chinese attempts to undermine and dismantle Uyghur advocacy from within.
"This is not merely espionage; it is an act of political warfare," stated Salih Hudayar, ETGE's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Security. "For more than twenty years, a man now facing accusations of working for Chinese intelligence led an organisation that claimed to represent our people. This isn't a failure in the vetting process; it's a result of a calculated, systematic effort by Beijing to fracture, manipulate, and control our movement," as mentioned in the ETGE release.
The ETGE contends that this is not an isolated case but part of a broader CCP strategy of transnational repression. The Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) are named as key operatives behind these efforts. These entities have historically targeted East Turkistani and Uyghur diaspora communities through tactics including surveillance, disinformation, and the infiltration of civil society organisations.
According to the ETGE, such infiltration has significantly weakened global Uyghur advocacy. The movement's message has shifted from demands for East Turkistan's national independence to more moderate calls for human rights and cultural autonomynarratives that align more closely with CCP-sanctioned discourse.
The ETGE reiterated its readiness to work with democratic nations in exposing and dismantling Chinese influence operations that target East Turkistani communities worldwide.
Since 1990, China's repression in East Turkistan has escalated, with the international community increasingly recognising it as genocide. Uyghurs continue to face mass arbitrary detentions, forced sterilisations, systemic forced labor, severe religious restrictions, and extensive transnational repression. These policies, the ETGE emphasised, violate basic human rights and subject the Uyghur population to ongoing persecution and oppression.
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