STERILIZATIONS, FORCED ABORTIONS, AND MANDATORY BIRTH CONTROL:

THE CCP’S CAMPAIGN TO SUPPRESS UYGHUR BIRTHRATES IN XINJIANG

By Adrian Zenz

June 2020

Washington, DC

Editor’s Note:

Dr. Adrian Zenz is one of the world’s leading scholars on People’s Republic of China (PRC) government
policies towards the country’s western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. Research performed by Dr. Zenz in
2017-2018 played a significant role in bringing to light the Chinese government’s campaign of repression and
mass internment directed against ethnic Uyghur persons in Xinjiang (China Brief, September 21, 2017; China
Brief, May 15, 2018; China Brief, November 5, 2018). Dr. Zenz has also testified before the U.S. Congress
about state exploitation of the labor of incarcerated Uyghur persons (CECC, October 17, 2019), and was the
author earlier this year of an in-depth analysis of the “Karakax List,” a leaked PRC government document
relating to repressive practices directed against religious practice among Uyghur Muslims (Journal of Political
Risk, February 17, 2020).

In this special Jamestown Foundation report, Dr. Zenz presents detailed analysis of another troubling aspect
of state policy in Xinjiang: measures to forcibly suppress birthrates among ethnic Uyghur communities, to
include the mass application of mandatory birth control and sterilizations. This policy, directed by the
authorities of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is intended to reduce the Uyghur population in
Xinjiang relative to the numbers of ethnic Han Chinese—and thereby to promote more rapid Uyghur
assimilation into the “Chinese Nation-Race” (中华民族, Zhonghua Minzu), a priority goal of national-level
ethnic policy under CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping.

Based on research in original Chinese-language source materials, Dr. Zenz presents a compelling case that
the CCP party-state apparatus in Xinjiang is engaged in severe human rights violations that meet the criteria
for genocide as defined by the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
-- John Dotson (Editor, Jamestown Foundation China Brief)

Introduction

Intrauterine contraceptive devices, sterilizations, and forced family separations: since a sweeping crackdown
starting in late 2016 transformed Xinjiang into a draconian police state, witness accounts of intrusive state
interference into reproductive autonomy have become ubiquitous. While state control over reproduction has
long been a common part of the birth control regime in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the situation
in Xinjiang has become especially severe following a policy of mass internment initiated in early 2017 (China
Brief, September 21, 2017) by officials of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
After her release from internment, Zumrat Dawut, a Uyghur woman from Urumqi, paid a fine for having had
three instead of two children, and was offered free surgical sterilization (Washington Post, November 17,
2019). Threatened with internment if she refused, Dawut submitted to the procedure. Mihrigul Tursun, a
Uyghur mother of triplets, said that during detention she and other women were given unknown drugs and
injections that caused irregular bleeding and a loss of menstruation cycles (Associated Press, November 26,
2018). U.S. doctors later determined that she had been sterilized (Nikkei Asian Review, August 10, 2019).
Rakhima Senbay, a mother of four, was forcibly fitted with an intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) in what
was said to be a routine mandatory procedure prior to her internment (Washington Post, October 5, 2019).
2

Image: Rural Uyghur women in Hotan Prefecture receive free physical exams (November 2016). The article
accompanying this photo describes the details of how gynecological examinations are performed.
(Source: Renmin Wang).

How systematic are such incidents? Do they reflect government policies? What is their impact on minority
population growth?

Click here to read the full report: Zenz-Internment-Sterilizations-and-IUDs