26/07/2025
I had a conversation with a Chinese woman recently. She asked me,
“Where are you from?”
I answered without hesitation,
“I was born in Chinese-occupied East .”
My only intention was to speak the truth — without any propaganda or political agenda.
She paused, then replied,
“What?”
I repeated my words firmly, in both English and Chinese,
“Yes — Chinese-occupied East Turkistan.”
She responded,
“You mean ?”
I said,
“Yes. That’s what it’s called in your language. But we call it East Turkistan.”
I was speaking to her in Chinese — my words were clear and direct.
Then — quite deliberately — she asked,
“Is that ?”
I replied, calmly and clearly,
“No. Istanbul has absolutely nothing to do with this. Turkish people don’t even speak Chinese. I was born in East Turkistan.”
That’s when she tried to change the subject. She said,
“Well… white people invaded the United States.”
Her face turned red, and her voice cracked — like a broken speaker.
I stopped her immediately.
“Wait a moment. We’re not talking about the United States. This isn’t about America or white people. This is about the Uyghur people — and other Turkic peoples as well.”
She then tried to justify the Chinese colonization of East Turkistan, claiming that the East Turkistani people’s struggle for liberation is influenced or orchestrated by the United States and Türkiye.
If you look at Chinese propaganda aimed at foreign audiences, this narrative is repeated constantly — that the East Turkistan independence movement is simply a proxy of the U.S. or , created to destabilize China. Sadly, many governments with deep economic ties to accept and echo this narrative.
And the irony?
She lives in San Francisco — a city known for its values of liberty, human rights, and open dialogue. Yet she defended the occupation of my homeland, while trying to shift the blame onto the West.
If I had said these words publicly inside China — if I had even uttered the phrase “Chinese colonization of East Turkistan” — I would be sentenced to life in prison.
But here, in a free country — in Europe — I speak the truth without fear.
I tell my story not to provoke hatred, but to expose how Communist China has brainwashed ordinary citizens — training them to twist the truth, deny reality, and promote the false narrative of the state.