On August 27, 1949, a plane carrying the leadership of the Republic of East Turkestan was on its way to Beijing for talks with Mao Zedong. In circumstances that can be euphemistically called suspicious, the plane crashed, killing everyone on board. Upon hearing the news, Mao sent in the Communist military, and the occupation of East Turkestan began.

In the more than half century since, the people of East Turkestan – known generally as the Uighurs – have been brutally persecuted. Mosques have been razed to the ground. Political prisoners have been shot – after show trials in which they are branded as terrorists. In a pattern Tibet watchers will find all too familiar, the Communists have sent wave upon wave of Han Chinese to East Turkestan to reduce the Uighur majority there (this has been so successful the Uighurs are soon to become a minority in their own land, if they aren’t already). Large-scale development projects, ordered by the Communist leadership in Beijing, are set up as economic colonies, with all the jobs going to ethnic Chinese. In some of the major cities in East Turkestan, ethnic Chinese outnumber native Uighurs by 9 to 1. Even the name East Turkestan is nearly lost to history; Communist China has insisted all call the occupied nation “Xinjiang.”

Many who have suffered under Communist persecution, especially ethnic minorities within the PRC and occupied Tibetans, have similar experiences, but Uighurs have two other painful effects that are all their own – nuclear fallout, and the Communist slander of “terrorism.”

For nearly four decades, Communist China has conducted nuclear testing in East Turkestan. Most of these tests were conducted above ground, in open air, with no concern for those who would suffer from the nuclear fallout. Over 200,000 have died, and tens of thousands more have fallen ill with cancer.

For over five decades, Communist China desperately tried to keep secret any evidence of resistance to the occupation in East Turkestan. On September 11, 2001, that all changed. While America licked its wounds, and the Uighur people loudly expressed their sympathy and support for the United States, Communist China saw an opportunity, an opportunity to smear an entire people for the regime’s benefit. Suddenly, resistance to Communism in East Turkestan was supposedly everywhere, and according to Beijing, all of it was tied to and supported by Osama bin Laden. Never mind that bin Laden himself never uttered one word about East Turkestan. Never mind that bin Laden himself was allowed to use Communist Chinese front companies on stock exchanges around the world to launder drug money for his terrorist operations. Never mind that Uighurs in this country and throughout the world have shown themselves to be the most pro-American Muslims on Earth.

However, today’s significance goes far beyond the Communist occupation of what was once a free land. As America fights the terror triumvirate of Wahhabism, Ba’athism, and Khomenism, her people have asked: where are the Muslims who don’t hate America? Where are the Muslims who do not see the fulfillment of their faith in emulating the hijackers of September 11, 2001? Where are the Muslims who understand us, our vision, and our desire for freedom for all?

Those of us fortunate enough to know the Uighur people do not ask these questions. We don’t have to ask them. We see these Muslims every day; we work with them; we are proud to call them our friends.

We also know who Communist China considers its friends. It has signed economic agreements with Wahhabists in the Taliban, and helped Osama bin Laden launder drug money. It has sold arms to Ba’athist Syria and Saddam Hussein. It has been involved in every significant step of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and has been the Khomeinist regime’s largest missile parts benefactor. While Communist China fights phantom terrorists in East Turkestan, it arms and enables real terrorist regimes throughout the world as “some kind of check on U.S. power.” Thus Uighur resistance to Communist China is in fact the complete opposite of what the Communists say it is. By forcing the Beijing regime to divert its energies, the Uighurs have limited, not enhanced, the anti-American forces of terrorism. In resisting Communism, the Uighurs make America safer every day.

Fifty-five years ago, Communist occupation of East Turkestan began. America joins you in their sorrow, and lets you know you will never be forgotten.

Thank you, God Bless You, and may God Bless the American, Chinese, and Uighur peoples.

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This is an address given at a rally marking the anniversary of Communist China's occupation of East Turkestan, which began on August 27, 1949, and continues to this day.

D.J. McGuire is the Co-Founder and President of the China e-Lobby
(http://www.geocities.com/china_e_lobby/.)