Mike Pompeo demands China end ‘Uygur sterilisations in Xinjiang’
- Report alleges widespread campaign to reduce population of mostly Muslim minority group via forced birth control
- Facing calls for investigation, China’s foreign ministry calls story ‘fake news’
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday demanded that China end the alleged forced sterilisation of Uygur women after a report of a campaign against the mostly Muslim minority.
While individual women have spoken out before about forced birth control, the practice is far more widespread and systematic than previously known, according to an Associated Press investigation based on government statistics, state documents and interviews with 30 ex-detainees, family members and a former detention camp instructor.
China has called the allegations baseless but the United States demanded an immediate end to the campaign described in the report.
“We call on the Chinese Communist Party to immediately end these horrific practices and ask all nations to join the United States in demanding an end to these dehumanising abuses,” Pompeo said.
The hundreds of millions of dollars the government pours into birth control has transformed Xinjiang from one of China’s fastest-growing regions to among its slowest in just a few years, according to new research obtained by AP in advance of publication by China scholar Adrian Zenz.
