‘Coercion causing Uighur birth fall’
“Coercive policies” in China’s western region of Xinjiang have led to a sharp decline in birthrates among Uighurs and other minorities, which could add to evidence of genocide, an Australian think tank has said in a new report.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report, citing official Chinese data, said that there has been an “unprecedented and precipitous drop in official birthrates in Xinjiang since 2017”, when China began a campaign to control birth rates in the region. Xinjiang’s birthrate dropped by nearly half from 2017 to 2019, and areas where the population was predominately Uighur or another minority group saw much sharper declines than other areas.
China maintains that changes in birthrates are linked to improved health and economic policy and it strongly rejects accusations of genocide.
ASPI “fabricates data and distorts facts”, Hua Chunying,
China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, told reporters in Beijing on Thursday.
Exercises in Japan are waste of fuel: Beijing
China has described week-long military drill in southern Japan involving troops from France, Japan, the US and Australia as a “waste of fuel”. Hua said, “Does [anyone think] this joint drill aimed at putting pressure on China would really frighten China?... This so-called joint drill has no impact at all on China, it only costs them fuel.”