Opinion: The Uyghur Diaspora Must Adopt a Long-Term Strategy for the Future of East Turkestan

By Mehmet Tohti

Today, Uyghurs in East Turkestan are living through one of the darkest periods in their history. China’s policies—using detention camps for brainwashing, erasing national identity, and altering the demographic structure of East Turkestan—have inflicted severe and deep damage on Uyghur national identity. Our younger generations are being cut off from their mother tongue, religious beliefs, and national traditions. Mosques, shrines, architectural heritage, and cultural monuments have been destroyed, pushed out of both sight and memory.

With the community’s intellectuals—the creators and transmitters of culture—having been completely silenced, Uyghur society has come to resemble a herd without a shepherd or a ship without a guiding star.

Since 2017, when the genocide reached its peak, the World Uyghur Congress and several dedicated organizations have exposed China’s brutal crimes to the world and strengthened international support. As a result, the number of countries expressing sympathy for Uyghurs and condemning China at the United Nations has increased significantly.

However, there has been no change in China’s policies. This leaves Uyghurs living in the diaspora facing an urgent question: how do we survive outside our homeland, and how can we achieve national revival in the future?

This question leads us to the following foundational reflections:

First: the importance of education and upbringing. Children in exile must firmly master their mother tongue and, through it, build deep connections to our history and culture. Without preserving the mother tongue, a nation cannot survive in the long term.

Second: to maintain national consciousness and unity among the Uyghur population in the diaspora, it is necessary to create concentrated residential areas or micro-cultural environments in countries and regions where conditions allow. By mobilizing targeted programs such as Canada’s ongoing M62 program, we must care for our scattered relatives—those traumatized by insecurity and fear for their lives, and those who have become victims of transnational repression—and provide them with a shared living environment. Through this, a micro-cultural ecosystem can be built within the diaspora.

Third: rather than short-term, publicity-oriented actions, it is essential to develop plans and programs for a long-term, shared strategy centered on preserving national identity.

To achieve this, a unified, professional, and orderly structure is required:

• Strengthen the foundation, quality, and professionalism of unifying organizations with mobilizing power, such as the World Uyghur Congress.
• Establish institutions dedicated to education, research, diplomacy, and the protection of our national identity.
• Cultivate young leaders and develop long-term financial planning.
• Build systematic cooperation with governments and the public.

As an additional initiative, a digital archive must be established. By strengthening the Uyghur Academy, it is necessary to build a professional digital archiving system, create global youth platforms, mobilize efforts to revitalize culture, and develop an independent media network.

For a nation under genocide, survival itself is the greatest form of resistance. For the diaspora, unity is the greatest strength. A long-term strategy is the only path to saving the homeland and realizing shared national revival.

Our ancestors preserved our identity for centuries. Now that responsibility rests in our hands.

Mehmet Tohti is the Executive Director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project in Canada. He is a co-founder of the World Uyghur Congress and has twice served as vice-president. Mehmet’s most significant achievements as an activist in exile in Canada have included lobbying the House of Commons to vote, overwhelmingly, in support of a motion to declare China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority population a genocide. Though Mehmet has been subjected to threats while working in Canada, he continues to lobby both provincial and federal governments and Canadian businesses to boycott products produced in China by Uyghur slave labour.

Note: This article was originally published in Uyghur Post, the partner publication of Uyghur Times, in line with its principle of providing space for diverse viewpoints, publishes contributions from individuals and organizations with differing perspectives. The opinions and views expressed in commentaries are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Uyghur Times.