CUS Press Release
For Immediate Release
July 5, 2025
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Today, July 5, 2025, marks the 16th anniversary of the Urumchi Massacre, a turning point in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brutal oppression of the Uyghur people and the precursor to the Uyghur Genocide. On this day in 2009, thousands of young Uyghurs, mostly university students, gathered peacefully in the streets of Urumchi to demand justice for Uyghur workers who had been killed in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. Their demands for the truth were met with bullets, batons, and bloody crackdowns.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal police and military forces carried out a coordinated and violent crackdown, beating, arresting, and opening fire on peaceful protesters. Many of the oppressed Uyghurs have been unable to return to their homes. Hospitals have been barricaded, communications cut off, and Urumchi has been isolated from the world for almost a year afterward. The Chinese government has refused to disclose the exact number of deaths to date. According to independent estimates, hundreds of Uyghurs have lost their lives, and countless others have disappeared or been imprisoned without trial.
Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris said, “The July 5 massacre was not a spontaneous outbreak of violence, but a calculated act of state oppression. We will never forget our brothers and sisters who were killed, disappeared, or silenced on July 5. Their blood cries out for justice. We will not rest until justice is served.” Idris noted in his statement, “This incident marked the beginning of a new and terrifying era for the Uyghur people, characterized by mass detention, digital surveillance, cultural annihilation, and genocide. The events we are witnessing today in East Turkistan cannot be separated from the silence and impunity that followed July 5.”
In the years that followed, the CCP intensified its genocidal policies against the Uyghurs. Millions of Uyghurs have been detained in internment camps under the guise of “re-education.” Mosques have been demolished, copies of the Quran burned, and religious leaders imprisoned. Uyghur children have been separated from their families and sent to state-run boarding schools to sever their ties to their faith and traditions. Uyghur women are being forcibly sterilized and subjected to sexual violence.
Despite this, the international response has been inconsistent and, in most cases, silent, especially from countries that promote human rights. The July 5 Urumchi Massacre should have awakened the conscience of the world. Instead, emboldened by the lack of response, the CCP has intensified its genocide against the Uyghurs.
For Uyghurs around the world, July 5 is a day of mourning and remembrance, but also a day of resolve. While the Chinese government seeks to erase history, Uyghurs continue to speak the truth, preserve memory, and seek justice.
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