Expats from Eastern Turkestan (which appears in your atlas as the “Xinjiang

Autonomous Region” of communist China — the autonomy is, of course,

perfectly fictitious) are going to form a government in exile. For this

purpose, they are going to have a rally in Washington DC.

The rally was originally intended for August 26, the anniversary of a highly

suspicious plane crash in 1949 that killed the leadership of the Eastern

Turkestan Republic while they were on their way to meet with Mao Tse-tung in

Peking. (It was August 27 local time, and is more often presented like

that.) China subsequently colonized Eastern Turkestan, and remains in

possession today.

However, I am told by the indispensible D.J. McGuire that the date has

been shifted to a probable Sept. 7, or possible Sept. 13. There may still

be an event on August 26, though. Check in with the China e-lobby website

(the one I just linked to) for updates.

To the question: “Why should I support a bunch of Muslims who want their

country back, given all the problems we’re having with existing Muslim

nations?” I respond that the Uighurs of Eastern Turkestan are *good*

Muslims — like Turks (to whom they are close ethnic cousins) or

Indonesians. You can certainly find a few crazies among them. The ChiComs

can be guaranteed diligently to promote any such crazies as “typical.” They

are not, though. The Uighurs, like their Turkish relatives, take their

religion mild, and are pro-American. (Though goodness knows why they should

be pro-American, since we never lifted a finger to help them in all their

sufferings under the Maoist tyranny.)