Daily US Times: A new research says China is forcing women to be fitted with contraceptive devices or sterilised in Xinjiang in an apparent attempt to limit the population of Muslim Uighurs.
China scholar Adrian Zenz made the report which has prompted international calls for the United Nations to investigate.
China denies the allegations in the report, calling them “baseless”.
The state is already facing widespread criticism for holding Uighurs in detention camps.
It is believed there are about one million Muslim Uighurs and other mostly-Muslim minorities detained in state camps, what China defines as “re-education” camps.
China previously denied the existence of the camps, but later acknowledged and defended them as a necessary measure against terrorism, following separatist violence in the Xinjiang region.
Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, called on China to “immediately end these horrific practices”.
He urged “all nations to join the United States in demanding an end to these dehumanizing abuses”.
In recent years, China has faced mounting global scrutiny over its handling of Uighur Muslims. In 2019, an investigative report from the BBC suggested that children in Xinjiang were being systematically separated from their families in an effort to isolate them from their Muslim communities.
Call for UN investigation on China over Uighurs
The Interparliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an international cross-party group of politicians including Conservative MP Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Iain Duncan Smith and US senator Marco Rubio, called on the United Nations to “establish an international, impartial, independent investigation into the situation in the Xinjiang region”.
“A body of mounting evidence now exists, alleging mass incarceration, indoctrination, extrajudicial detention, invasive surveillance, forced labor, and the destruction of Uyghur cultural sites, including cemeteries, together with other forms of abuse,” the statement published on Monday said.
“The world cannot remain silent in the face of unfolding atrocities. Our countries are bound by solemn obligations to prevent and punish any effort to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group ‘in whole or in part’.”
Associated Press (AP) published A REPORT on Monday, saying women in Xinjiang have faced exorbitant fines and threats of internment for breaching childbearing limits.
China’s foreign ministry said the allegations were “baseless” and showed “ulterior motives”, while responding the report.
Zhao Lijian, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman accused media outlets of “cooking up false information on Xinjiang-related issues”.
Under China’s long-lasting one-child policy, urban minorities were instead allowed two children. Rural families are allowed to three or four. A 2017 policy change, under President Xi Jinping, removed the ethnic distinction, permitting Han Chinese to have the same number of children as minorities, while preserving the urban-rural distinction.
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