The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile (ETGE), officially known as the Government in Exile of the Republic of East Turkistan, is the democratically elected official body representing East Turkistan and its people. On December 22, 1949 the People’s Republic of China overthrew the independent East Turkistan Republic, leading to many East Turkistanis including senior military and government officials to flee to the Soviet Union. Over the decades since China occupied East Turkistan, various East Turkistani entities played the role of a de-facto government in exile and were unable to find a friendly nation willing to host them as an official government in exile. The East Turkistan Government in Exile was formally established on September 14, 2004, as an official government in exile in Washington, DC, by prominent Uyghur, Kazakh and other East Turkistani independence leaders representing over a dozen organizations from across the East Turkistani / Uyghur diaspora following the dissolution of the East Turkistan National Congress (ETNC). The East Turkistan Government in Exile is a democratic body with a representative Parliament.