On the evening of November 23, 2025, despite the bad weather of rain and snow, around 10 Uyghurs and dissidents from various provinces of China gathered at the Dam Square in Amsterdam, Netherlands to commemorate the third anniversary of the tragic fire at the Urumqi Jixiang Garden during the pandemic lockdown by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They gathered to hold a vigil for the 50 souls lost in the fire.
At the event, a 6-meter-long banner was unfurled, displaying photos of some of the victims along with slogans in both Chinese and English: “Never Forget the 44 Uyghurs Killed in Urumqi Fire”. Participants also raised protest banners such as the signboard of “Urumqi Middle Road” and blank papers.
Despite the harsh weather conditions with a slippery and rainy square, the participants persisted until the end of the event. The gathering was initiated and chaired by Abdurehim Gheni, the chairman of the “Support Uyghurs Foundation.” Three individuals suspected to be instructed by the Chinese embassy or students’ association filmed from a distance, and no conflicts erupted.
In the night of November 24, 2022, flames erupted in the Jixiang Garden area of Urumqi. Fire trucks were held back by epidemic prevention barriers and obstacles, unable to reach the fire site for hundreds of meters. 44 Uyghur compatriots were burned alive in the corridors and inside their homes. Their cries for help at windows, their last desperate screams on their phones still echo in people’s ears three years later.
During the final moments of the gathering, from 7:45 pm to 8:00 pm, participants lit photos of Xi Jinping and Chen Quanguo inscribed with “Xi Jinping, the lackey of Marxism-Leninism” and “Chen Quanguo, the lackey of Marxism-Leninism,” along with the bloodstained Five-Star flag and the flag of the CCP. Amid the flames, the crowd fervently chanted: “Xi Jinping Step Down!”, “Down with the Communist Party!”, “Xi Jinping, the terrorist!”, “Chen Quanguo to hell!”. The louder the rain and snow fell, the stronger the voices of protest became.
Abdurehim Gheni, the chairman of the Support Uyghurs Foundation, delivered a keynote speech. He stated, “Under the guise of the ‘zero-COVID policy’, the CCP continues to practice genocide, forced starvation, and biological terrorism against the Uyghur people.”
He revealed, “Currently, over 3 million Uyghurs are detained in concentration camps. Our language, culture, history, and religion are being systematically destroyed. Children are forcibly separated from their parents, losing their language, culture, and beliefs, compelled to be ‘sinicized’ Chinese. Uyghur women are not only forced to marry Han Chinese but also subjected to rape, forced sterilization, forced abortions, and more.”
“Uyghurs are not only subjected to forced labor but also mass-transferred to mainland Chinese factories as slaves. Uyghur organs are forcibly harvested and sold,” Abdurehim Gheni added.
He called for immediate cessation of these nauseating political policies and acts of genocide by the CCP. He urged the world to condemn the Chinese government, implement sanctions and punishments to prevent the tragic fate of the Uyghur people today from becoming the future fate of other ethnic groups.
Xing Songlin, a dissident from Henan and a former fellow alumnus of the former Party Secretary of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Chen Quanguo, spoke out, “Three years have passed, but my heart still cannot find peace. It’s not because the time isn’t long enough, but because the truth and pain of that fire haven’t disappeared with time! That building was welded shut with iron doors, sealed as a fiery prison. It was not a natural disaster, not an accident; it was an unadulterated man-made catastrophe! It was a result of the extreme lockdown policy of the CCP turning into a murderous policy!”
He exposed that the mastermind and the main architect of this murderous policy is Chen Quanguo! Chen Quanguo enforced comprehensive surveillance in Tibet, accelerated the sinicization of Tibetans, prioritized social stability. Upon his transfer to Xinjiang, he locked up over a million Uyghurs in concentration camps, enforced sterilization, and forced labor. Students of Zhengzhou University refer to him in private as the ‘ruthless enforcer’ and consider him ‘a disgrace to Zhengzhou University.’
Xing Songlin declared, “I want to tell all our compatriots in mainland China: It was these 44 Uyghur brothers and sisters who ignited the flames of fury with their lives. They stirred 1.4 billion Chinese from their slumber! It was their cries in the fire, echoing in agony even three years later, that led to the nationwide blank paper movement, causing the ‘dynamic zeroing’ calamity to collapse within days!”
He appealed to the international community, “Enforce wider sanctions immediately! Not just against Chen Quanguo, not only against Ma Xingrui, Yang Fasheng, but also against the highest decision-makers and instigators of the dynamic zeroing policy — Xi Jinping! Freeze all their family’s overseas assets! Forbid their children and relatives from stepping into the free world! Let every official, soaked in the blood of Uyghurs and Chinese, live in fear and judgment for the rest of their lives!”
Jiang Peikun, a dissident and human rights defender from Guangdong, expressed during his speech, “Today, I stand here as a dissident from Guangdong, roaring against this brutal regime. Within us, flows the blood of pursuing freedom and rejecting enslavement! We firmly believe in the universal values of equality from birth, we all long for freedom, equality, and human rights, rights that no government has the authority to deprive us of!”
He pointed out that the fire was not a natural disaster but a human-made catastrophe by the ruthless CCP dictatorship! “The citizens of Urumqi were locked down for over a hundred days and nights! Trapped inside tall buildings, their escape routes sealed with iron bars! Fire exits blocked with barriers! The burning flames did not just consume a building; they devoured lives, humanity, and the last glimpse of hope of the Chinese people for their right to exist!”
Jiang Peikun remarked, “The blood of Urumqi today will not flow in vain!
He urged, “Three years, three years of the blank paper movement, we can endure no longer! We cannot stay silent anymore! We must completely overthrow the CCP dictatorship! We must hold Xi Jinping accountable! We must rebuild a new China that truly belongs to the people, based on freedom, equality, human rights!”
Wei Zhijian, a dissident from Guangxi and a member of the Democratic Party of China Overseas Committee, stated during his speech, “This fire was no accident; it was a bloody portrayal of the evil nature of the CCP dictatorship, sparking the flames of resistance among the people and giving birth to the blank paper movement. We must condemn this evil regime that rules with an iron fist, treating people as mere grass.”
He revealed, “The Urumqi fire is just a glimpse of the CCP’s brutal rule. Since usurping power in 1949, from the Anti-Rightist Campaign, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution’s bloody atrocities, to the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the genocide against the Uyghurs in East Turkestan, the suffocation of Hong Kong’s freedom, the CCP’s hands are stained with the blood of the innocent! This evil monster cloaked in ‘socialism’ fears the truth, blocks information with the great firewall, brainwashes the people with a machine of lies.”
It is this evil and cruelty that ignited the revolutionary fire of the blank paper movement! The tragedy of Urumqi, like a thunderclap, awakened the dormant people.
As people took to the streets with empty sheets of blank paper, protesting against this evil dictatorship. Wei Zhijian stated, “These blank papers carry the imprisoned truth and stifled dreams of all. This movement swept across the nation, thundering slogans: ‘No to nucleic acid, yes to freedom!’, ‘Down with the Communist Party!’, ‘Down with Xi Jinping!’. The blank paper movement is a milestone of people’s awakening, proving that the Chinese people are dignified warriors.”
He advocated, “We call on the international community to awaken, sanction the corrupt officials of the CCP. We support domestic civil movements to promote constitutional reform. We must inherit the spirit of the countless martyrs sacrificed under tyranny, turn sorrow into strength, resist and fight to the end.”
Jiang Hong, a dissident from Heilongjiang, said during his speech, “The malicious lockdown and forced furloughs by the CCP led to the absence of Urumqi firefighters, resulting in the loss of innocent lives! Falsified nucleic acid tests and data during the pandemic, with no one held accountable. Three years ago, in the late autumn fire, it devoured family tranquility, freezing the time for the victims, but their memory cannot be buried!”
“We commemorate for those who can’t return home, families who lost loved ones, lives unjustly disappeared! Commemoration is responsibility: seeking answers from disaster, remaining vigilant, respecting life! May the victims rest in peace, may such tragedies never repeat, may candlelight illuminate a future that respects humanity!” he added.
Other supporters present at the scene included dissidents such as Yu Yang from Anhui, GroenLinks candidate councilor Alik Ablik Muk (whose father has been detained in Xinjiang concentration camps since 2017), and Liu Feilong, the founder of the Anti-Communist Voice.