Chinese Government Issues White Paper to Celebrate 70 Years of Occupation and Uyghur Genocide

White paper praises Xinjiang “achievements” while ignoring decades of repression, forced labor, and genocide.

Sep 25, 2025

By Ablimiz Iminniyaz

China released a new white paper on September 22 claiming “unprecedented economic and social progress” in Xinjiang and presenting the 70th anniversary of the so-called Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as a success story. Titled Communist Party of China Guidelines for Governing Xinjiang in the New Era: Practice and Achievements, the 21,000-word report boasts improvements in infrastructure, GDP growth, and “people’s well-being.”

The paper includes statements like “people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang cherish the current prosperity and are determined to safeguard social stability,” and dismisses accusations of forced labor as “groundless” and politically motivated.

The paper also claims that “Xinjiang respects and protects ethnic minorities’ right to learn and use their own spoken and written languages, the white paper said, adding that the region administers religious affairs in accordance with the law, allows religious groups to manage their own affairs independently, and guides religions to be compatible with socialist society.”

In addition to state media, global media operations, trolls, bots, paid Western influencers, and “genocide tours” from allied countries, Beijing has repeatedly issued white papers and press releases to whitewash ongoing human rights abuses.

Uyghur rights groups condemned that white paper.

“It is an absurd piece of nonsense,” said UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat. “It is shameful for the Chinese government to claim to be preserving ethnic culture and language when in fact the Uyghur people are currently suffering the systematic, step-by-step elimination of our language and heritage.”

Abliz Iminniyaz is a Uyghur volunteer journalist for Uyghur Times. He covers human rights issues in China and reports on the Uyghur diaspora.