‘Demographic Genocide’ in China

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XINJIANG, China (ChurchMilitant.com) - China is now forcing abortion, sterilization and other forms of contraception on ethnic women in northwestern China.

According to an Associated Press (AP) report published on Monday, "The State regularly subjects minority women to pregnancy checks and forces intrauterine devices [IUDs], sterilization and even abortion on hundreds of thousands, the interviews and data show. Even while the use of IUDs and sterilization has fallen nationwide, it is rising sharply in Xinjiang."

AP conducted its investigation utilizing government statistics, state documents and interviews with 30 ex-detainees, family members as well as a former detention camp instructor. It found that the communist State over the past four years regularly subjected hundreds of thousands of minority women in what's called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China to such forms of population control.

Minority Birth Rates Plunging

While China's one-child policy has been lifted, resulting in forced sterilization and abortion dropping nationwide, these means of death have been rising sharply in Xinjiang. Control and forced enculturation are apparent goals for the Chinese communists.

The AP investigation found China's campaign over the past four years in Xinjiang is leading to what some experts are calling a form of "demographic genocide." Birth rates among the Uyghur and other minority populations there have plunged 60% in the past three years.

The region includes a mixture of people from central Asia, mostly Muslim, whose region has been taken over by the People's republic of China since 1949. The people populating this region include Turkic Uyghur, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, as well as the Han, Tibetans, Hui, Tajiks, Mongols, Russians and Xibe.

"The population control measures for women in this region of China are backed by mass detention, both as a threat and as a punishment for failure to comply," the AP reported.

It found that having what China considers to be too many children is a major reason for people to be sent to detention camps. Parents of three children or more are routinely ripped away from their families unless they can pay huge fines. It is not uncommon for police to raid homes in this region, without notice, terrifying parents as they search for hidden children.

Chinese officials have noted widespread poverty and sporadic terrorist activity in the region, but outside experts call this birth control program part of a broad assault aimed at forcibly assimilating Xinjiang's minority populations.

A Kazakh woman sobbed while talking with investigators: "God bequeaths children on you. To prevent people from having children is wrong. They want to destroy us as a people."

Another woman lamented, "We lost part of our body, we lost our identity as women. We will never be able to have children again. They've cut one of our organs. It's gone."

New research by Chinese scholar Adrian Zenz found the communist government poured hundreds of millions of dollars into birth control measures, which thus had significant effects. It transformed Xinjiang from one of China's fastest-growing regions to among its slowest in just a few years.

Slow 'Genocide' a 'Security' Measure

Zenz, a leading expert in China's minority regions, said, "This kind of drop is unprecedented. There's a ruthlessness to it. This is part of a wider control campaign to subjugate the Uyghurs."

China defended itself against the AP report and related allegations, deriding the story as "fabricated" and "fake news." The ministry claims the Chinese government treats all ethnicities equally and protects the legal rights of minorities.

While the AP report indicated families of the Han Chinese (major ethnic Chinese population) may now have three children, it found that this is not the case with Uyghur and other minority women.

Nevertheless, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said when asked about the AP story, "Everyone, regardless of whether they're an ethnic minority or Han Chinese, must follow and act in accordance with the law."

In its report, AP quoted experts who insist the Chinese are attempting to trim the Uyghur population in order to reduce the social influence of Islam, as well as other religions. The government has become convinced a growing Uyghur population poses a major security risk.

Other observers say the program is simply a slow-moving form of genocide. Local birth rates are suppressed while Han Chinese migrate into Xinjiang. There are cash rewards for intermarriage between Han Chinese and Uyghurs. Some sources told AP that minority women are forced to live with Han Chinese men while their husbands were held in the concentration camps — a practice first documented in late 2019.

The United States has not been silent on this human rights problem. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the policies in a statement on Monday: "We call on the Chinese Communist Party to immediately end these horrific practices."

President Trump recently signed into law the Uyghur Human Rights Act, which authorizes sanctions against Chinese officials who participate in "human rights violations and abuses such as the systematic use of indoctrination camps, forced labor and intrusive surveillance to eradicate the ethnic identity and religious beliefs of Uyghurs and other minorities."

Beijing, in turn, denounced the law as "malicious" interference in China's internal affairs.

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