US news outlet: Uyghur American Association a US-funded group aiming to "escalate hostilities with China"

Screenshot of the US-based independent news outlet The Grayzone

An article published by the US-based independent news outlet The Grayzone unmasked an anti-China organization – namely, the Uyghur American Association (UAA) – laying bare that the UAA, which is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), "works closely with Washington and other Western governments to escalate hostilities with China".

On March 21, US-government-funded Uyghur activists were caught on video disrupting a gathering held in Washington DC against anti-Asian racism, a move which drew widespread condemnation on social media, wrote Ajit Singh in an article entitled "'Wipe out China!' US-funded Uyghur activists train as gun-toting foot soldiers for empire" as published in The Grayzone on March 31.

The article revealed that the UAA is the US-affiliate of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and is the recipient of millions of dollars of funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a US government-sponsored entity.

"The NED has been central to the rising international prominence of the Uyghur separatist movement. In 2020, the NED boasted that it [had] given Uyghur groups $8,758,300 since 2004 (including $75,000 in annual funding to the UAA)," as the article claimed.

According to the article, despite claiming to represent the interests of China's Uyghur and Muslim minority populations, many of the UAA's closest allies represent some of the foremost anti-Muslim, far-right forces in Washington, from Republican Rep. Ted Yoho to the Family Research Council, in addition to the FBI.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UAA and members of its affiliate organizations supported inflaming anti-Asian resentment by spreading far-right propaganda to stigmatize the virus as the "Chinese virus", and claimed that China was waging a "virus war" against the world.

The article pointed out that the UAA's ultra-patriotic reverence for the US and fanatical anti-China political leanings have been put on full display under the organization's current president, Kuzzat Altay, who frequently takes to social media to make his allegiance to Washington known.

The degree of Altay's infatuation with the US is only matched by the ferocity of his enmity towards China, said the report, citing a statement made by the organization's president on July 25, 2020 that "The most normal thing that I could ever imagine is anti-China activities every freaking day."

According to the article, Altay is a staunch supporter of Washington's "new Cold War" agenda and applauds the Trump administration's instigation of a trade and technology war.

"Altay and his comrades have routinely teamed up with far-right, Islamophobic forces in the US to advance their separatist campaign."

Throughout the pandemic, Altay and fellow leaders of the Uyghur separatist movement have incessantly spread right-wing conspiracies and outlandish theories blaming China for COVID-19 and all its associated deaths, which has played a key role in whipping up anti-Asian sentiment in the US and the West, it noted.

The US government has engaged in "a marriage of convenience with a Uyghur separatist movement" that is firmly aligned with the gun-obsessed, anti-immigrant subculture of Trumpism, while turning a blind eye to the far-right politics of what is now one of its most important proxy groups, it further stated.