Beijing admits steep fall in Uighur birth rate

Chinese officials have admitted that birth rates have plummeted among its ethnic Uighurs, fuelling claims that Beijing is subjecting its Muslim minority to a campaign of forced birth control.

Official statistics show that in Xinjiang, the north-western province where most of the 10-million strong Uighur community live, birth rates dropped by almost a third in 2018.

The statistics follow accusations that Beijing is attempting to reduce the Uighur population by threatening women with fines or spells in mass detention camps if they flout harsh family planning measures.

At least a million Uighurs are believed to have passed through the camps in recent years, which Beijing insists are voluntary schools to teach Uighurs of the dangers of Islamic extremism.

Human rights groups say they are used to eradicate Uighur culture, in tandem with forced abortion and sterilisation policies that amount to ‘‘demographic genocide’’. The statistics were released by Xinjiang to CNN in response to an article by the news organisation in July that alleged widespread mistreatment of Uighur women.

One mother of three, who had already spent time in an internment camp, claimed that Xinjiang officials had told her she would serve extra time there unless she agreed to sterilisation.

Chinese officials disputed much of the CNN report, which was based partly on findings by Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow at Washington’s Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, who is known for his research on Xinjiang.

But they said that the birth rate in the region had dropped from 15.88 per 1000 people in 2017 to 10.69 per 1000 people in 2018. That is a drop of roughly one-third, or 40,000 babies.

Up until 2015, the Chinese government enforced a ‘‘one-child’’ family planning policy countrywide. Ethnic minorities, such as the Uighurs, were typically allowed to have up to three, although in practice often had many more. Beijing claims the drop in numbers reflects family planning policies being properly enforced for the first time.

However, critics have claimed that Uighur women are sometimes threatened with detention if they have more than two children. Some women also claim to have been given medications in detention camps that stop them menstruating, or implanted against their will with intra-uterine devices to stop further pregnancies.

– Telegraph Group