Xinjiang: no family planning policy targeting Uygurs, Beijing says

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

Xinjiang

Liu Zhenin BeijingandCatherine Wong

Published: 1:58pm, 14 May 2021

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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.

“Our analysis builds on previous work and provides compelling evidence that Chinese government policies in Xinjiang may constitute an act of genocide,” it said.

The report said the Chinese authorities used fines, internment or the threat of internment to discourage births.

There have been calls from some countries for an investigation into Beijing’s actions in Xinjiang, and the United States, Britain and Canada have all accused Beijing of implementing policies amounting to genocide on the minority Uygurs and other primarily Muslim minorities. China has strongly denied the accusation.

Rights groups researchers and some politicians in the West have said China had put at least a million Uygurs and other members of minority groups into camps in Xinjiang since 2016. Beijing defends the camps as being “vocational training centres” to combat religious extremism, and has said most people in them have since “graduated”.

What is going on in Xinjiang and who are the Uygur people?

The US, Britain, Canada and the European Union have placed sanctions on several Chinese officials for alleged rights abuses in Xinjiang, and China retaliated with its own sanctions.

There have also been allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang. On Wednesday, the US climate envoy John Kerry said the Biden administration was considering sanctions for alleged forced labour in the production of solar panels and other components in Xinjiang, after previous sanctions related to the cotton industry there.

Hua on Thursday said such allegations were “outrageous” lies aimed at harming Xinjiang’s economy and stability.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: targeted family planning denied