SHOCKING REPORT
'Authorities in China are carrying out forced sterilizations of women. Demographic genocide against Uighurs is at work '
The report is likely to anger Beijing, which denies threatening the rights of ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
Uyghur in Urumqi in the Xinjiang region
Peter Parks
German researcher Adrian Zenz claims in a report published on Monday that the Chinese authorities are carrying out forced sterilization of women in order to apparently reduce the growth of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region, reports The Guardian .
The report, based on a combination of official data from the region, policy documents and interviews with women belonging to ethnic minorities, prompted parliamentarians from North America, Europe and Australia to call on the United Nations (UN) to investigate China's policy in the region.
The report is likely to infuriate Beijing, which denies threatening the rights of ethnic groups in Xinjiang and called Zenz's claims unfounded on Monday.
China is accused of imprisoning more than a million Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in "re-education" camps. Beijing describes the institutions as educational centers aimed at discouraging people from joining terrorist groups.
Zenz says Uyghurs and other women from minority groups are threatened with incarceration if they do not terminate non-compliant pregnancies. Experts who participated in a UN panel researching the aforementioned institutions cited Zenz's announcements about the camps, which he based on public documents he found on the Chinese Internet.
According to Zenz's report, women who gave birth to less than two children were forced to use intrauterine contraception, or IUDs, within the legal limit. Some women said they were persuaded to sterilize. Former camp inmates said they received injections that interrupted their menstruation or that caused bleeding such as occurs when taking contraceptives.
Government documents studied by Zenz found that women from minority groups in some rural communities were often sent for gynecological examinations and subjected to pregnancy tests twice a month.
Zenz found that the population in the districts in the Xinjiang region where the majority of ethnic minorities live between 2017 and 2018 grew much less than that in the districts dominated by the Han Chinese. Uyghur activists claim that China is using the camps to "brainwash" Uyghurs aimed at destroying their culture and Islamic identity. "There is a fear, based on these findings, that Beijing is pursuing a policy of something that could be characterized on a fundamental level as demographic genocide, as defined by the UN," Zenz said.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a group of members of parliaments from the United States, Europe and Australia from various political parties, said Monday it would seek an investigation into Xinjiang to determine whether crimes against humanity or genocide were committed in the region.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry claims that Zenz's claims are unfounded and says that the actors of "hidden motives" are behind them. Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian attacked the media for "fabricating false information about Xinjiang." "The situation in that region is stable and harmonious," he added.
The Association for the Protection of Rights of the World Uyghur Congress said that Zenz's report shows that the policy of the Communist Party of China has "genocidal" elements and called on the international community to oppose China.
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