Xinjiang: no family planning policy targeting Uygurs, Beijing says

Name: China hits back at UK claims of forced sterilisations and other human rights abuses against Uygurs
Uploaded: 2021-05-14T05:58:56.000Z
Duration: 1 min 54 s
Description: China hits back at UK claims of forced sterilisations and other human rights abuses against Uygurs

Chinese official data shows birth rate in areas with 90 per cent indigenous population fell average 57 per cent from 2017 to 2018, Australian think tank reports

‘Compelling evidence’ that Xinjiang policies ‘may constitute act of genocide’, it says – but Beijing says Uygur population grew 25 per cent from 2010 to 2018

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Schoolchildren in Kashgar, Xinjiang, take part in a music class during a government-organised visit for foreign journalists. It is claimed that indigenous birth rates in the region have plummeted. Photo: AP

Liu Zhenin BeijingandCatherine Wong

Published: 1:58pm, 14 May 2021Updated: 10:42pm, 14 May 2021

China on Thursday said its family planning policy never targeted any ethnic minority in Xinjiang as it responded to accusations that it had coercively reduced the birth rate of Uygurs.

A report published by think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) on Wednesday said there had been an “unprecedented and precipitous drop in official birth rates in Xinjiang since 2017”, which could add to evidence of genocide in the far-western region.

In response to the report, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the Australian government-funded institute “fabricated anti-China narratives by concocting data, distorting facts”.

“Xinjiang never formulated or implemented family planning policies targeting any single ethnic minority,” Hua said, adding that the country’s family planning policy started in 1982 in inland provinces for the majority Han group, reaching ethnic minorities in Xinjiang 17 years later than the Han people there, and less strictly.

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China hits back at UK claims of forced sterilisations and other human rights abuses against Uygurs

“Between 2010 and 2018, the Uygur population in Xinjiang increased by 25 per cent, notably higher than the 2 per cent for the ethnic Han group,” Hua said.

The ASPI analysis said that according to Chinese government data, including regional population figures released in March, the birth rates in counties with a 90 per cent or greater indigenous population declined by an average of 57 per cent from 2017 to 2018, far more than in other regions in Xinjiang and China during the same period.

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