The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has called on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to raise concerns about China's transnational repression of Uyghurs during his upcoming visit to Uzbekistan, warning that Central Asia has become both a refuge and a danger zone for Uyghurs fleeing persecution in China's Xinjiang region. The appeal, made public on 17 October 2026, comes as Rubio prepares to travel to the region next week.

The Threat Landscape in Central Asia

According to the WUC, Uyghurs living across Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and other Central Asian states have long faced pressure from their host governments acting on Beijing's demands to suppress Uyghur political, cultural, and religious activity. The organisation says this pressure manifests as surveillance, intimidation, arbitrary detention, and in the most serious cases, forced returns to China — where deportees reportedly face persecution, torture, and grave human rights violations.

The WUC noted that Central Asia occupies a dual and precarious role: it is simultaneously the primary refuge for Uyghurs who have fled Xinjiang, and a theatre of Chinese extraterritorial coercion, as Beijing leverages diplomatic and economic ties with regional governments to extend its reach beyond its borders.

What the WUC Is Asking Rubio to Do

The organisation has outlined specific demands it wants Rubio to raise. Chief among them is a call for Central Asian governments to immediately end the forced return of Uyghurs to China — whether through deportation, extradition, or informal transfer — on the grounds that such actions expose individuals to a serious risk of persecution. The WUC also urged Washington to press regional capitals to reject Chinese requests to monitor, intimidate, detain, or silence Uyghurs over their political opinions, peaceful activism, religious practices, or contact with relatives abroad.

The WUC described the visit as a 'rare opportunity,' invoking the precedent set by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who publicly raised the Uyghur issue with Central Asian leaders in 2019 and again during a visit to Kazakhstan in 2020, urging them not to deport Uyghurs to China.

The Xi Visit and Prior US Advocacy

This latest appeal follows the WUC's earlier pressure campaign around Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Washington on 24 September. At the time, WUC President Turgunjan Alawdun called on US President Donald Trump to use the summit to address the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang and China's transnational repression of diaspora communities.

'Xi's visit to Washington is a strategic moment to move beyond words of condemnation on the Uyghur genocide. The United States has been a strong and vocal ally to the Uyghur people, and Donald Trump has to use this opportunity to continue proving it,' Alawdun said.

Broader Context: China's Transnational Repression

The WUC's appeal reflects a wider, documented pattern of what human rights organisations describe as transnational repression — the use of diplomatic, economic, and covert pressure by authoritarian states to silence dissidents and minorities living abroad. For Uyghurs, Central Asia represents the first and most immediate layer of vulnerability outside China. Rights groups argue that as China deepens its infrastructure and economic footprint across the region through projects linked to the Belt and Road Initiative, the leverage it holds over host governments — and by extension, over Uyghur communities — continues to grow.

With Rubio's visit to Uzbekistan now imminent, the WUC's public appeal is designed to ensure the Uyghur question is not sidelined in favour of trade or security discussions.