China denies imposing coercive birth control measures for Uighur women

A Chinese official has denied that Beijing had imposed coercive birth control measures among Muslim minority women, following an outcry over a tweet by the Chinese Embassy in Washington that claimed government policies had freed women of the Uighur ethnic group from being “baby-making machines.”

Xu Guixiang, a deputy spokesperson for the Xinjiang regional government, told reporters on Monday that birth control decisions were made of the person’s own free will and that “no organisation or individual can interfere.”

“The growth rate of the Uighur population is not only higher than that of the whole Xinjiang population, but also higher than that of the minority population, and more significantly higher than that of the (Chinese majority) Han population," Xu said. “As for the so-called forcing ethnic minority women in Xinjiang to wear IUDs, or undergo tubal ligations or abortions, it is even more malign.”

An Associated Press report in June had said that the Chinese government was forcing draconian birth control measures on Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, including IUD fittings, contraceptives, and even abortions and sterilisations.

The measures are backed by the threat of detention, with parents of three or more children swept into camps and prisons if they’re unable to pay massive fines. 

As a result, the birth rate in Xinjiang’s minority regions plummeted by over 60 percent in just three years, even as Beijing eases birth restrictions on the Han population ahead of a looming demographic crisis.

READ MORE: Why is China being accused of sterilising Uighur women?

Years-long campaign

Twitter took down the Chinese Embassy's January 7 tweet following protests by groups that accuse Beijing of seeking to eradicate Uighur culture. 

Users complained the tweet was a violation of rules set by Twitter, which is blocked in China along with Facebook and other American social media platforms.

“China’s fascist government is now openly admitting and celebrating its use of concentration camps, forced labor, forced sterilisations and abortions, and other forms of torture to eliminate an ethnic and religious minority," Nihad Awad, national executive director of The Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in an emailed statement.

China has been waging a years-long campaign against what it calls terrorism and religious fanaticism in Xinjiang and the embassy's tweet referenced those policies, saying: “Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines."

The tweet cited a study by Li Xiaoxia, a Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences researcher who has asserted that the birth control measures in Xinjiang are voluntary.

Li’s papers in past years laid the theoretical foundations for justifying mass birth control measures. In one 2017 paper, Li said having many children was a sign of “religious extremism and ethnic separatism.” Li worried that predominantly minority districts were breeding grounds for terrorism, calling it “a big political risk.”

READ MORE: ICC rejects Uighur calls to investigate China for possible genocide

US voices disgust

A US official voiced disgust on Friday after China's embassy took to social media to laud how women of the mostly Muslim Uighur community were no longer "baby-making machines."

"Appalled and disgusted at lies" of the Chinese embassy, tweeted Sam Brownback, the US envoy on international religious freedom.

"Coercive population control is not reproductive health care. (Uighur) women deserve to enjoy their religious freedom and unalienable rights with dignity to make their own choices."

Rights groups say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim people in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang have been incarcerated in camps in a bid to root out Islamic customs and forcibly integrate minorities.

China insists it is offering vocational training to reduce the allure of extremism in the wake of deadly attacks.

READ MORE: China using surveillance tech 'to arbitrarily' detain Uighurs