China’s seventh national census showed that the Han population grew by 4.93 percent over the past decade, while the population of ethnic minorities grew by 10.26 percent. In response, overseas ethnic minority human rights organizations have argued that Xinjiang’s ethnic minorities are affected by discriminatory policies such as forced sterilization and abortion, making it impossible for the population to grow significantly, and that authorities have replaced Han Chinese with ethnic minorities.
Ning Jizhe, deputy head of China’s seventh national census leading group and director of the National Bureau of Statistics, introduced the main data on the population of various ethnic groups, mentioning that the Han population was 128.63 million, or 91.11 percent, while the population of various ethnic minorities was 125.47 million, or 8.89 percent. Compared with 2010, the Han population increased by 4.93%, the population of all ethnic minorities increased by 10.26%, and the proportion of ethnic minority population increased by 0.40 percentage points. The steady growth of the ethnic population fully reflects the comprehensive development and progress of all ethnic groups under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
Uyghur birth rate more than doubles in two years
In response, Dilishati, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, questioned this. He told the station this Tuesday (May 11) that the birth rate of the Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang has dropped significantly in the past two years.
“The Chinese government is hiding the planned destruction of the Uighur ethnic group by claiming that the population of ethnic minorities is growing faster than that of the Han Chinese. According to statistics previously published by the Chinese government, the local population began to decline sharply in 2017. the local birth rate fell from 15.88 percent to 8.14 percent between 2017 and 2019
The natural population growth rate of Xinjiang’s Uyghur ethnic group has also declined sharply in the past two years, Dirishati said.
Dirishati: “The natural growth rate of the population fell from 11.4 percent in 2017 to 3.69 percent in 2019. The decline is more than 67%. The Chinese government’s planned population control measures targeting the Uighur ethnic group include forced sterilization and abortion.”
Speaking to the station, Serkjian, founder of the Kazakh human rights organization Atajulte Volunteers, said.
Selkjian: “The so-called claim that the birth rate of ethnic minorities is twice as high as that of Han Chinese is unfounded. First, the Communist Party of China has been implementing a strict family planning policy in Xinjiang, encouraging and forcing party members and public officials to have only one child or to marry later and have children later. Second, since the mass arrests of Kazakhs and Uyghurs in Xinjiang since 2017, almost no children have been born in the whole Xinjiang in these five years, and it is certain that the birth rate of Kazakhs and Uyghurs in Xinjiang is almost zero in these years. So many maternal and child health centers were changed to concentration camps, which we have evidence of.”
Conversion of Han Chinese to Uyghur and Kazakh nationalities
Selkjian denounced the birth rate of ethnic minorities published by the Chinese government as “false”. As an example, he said.
“Falsehoods. Many Han Chinese have been deliberately changed into Kazakhs and Uyghurs, pretending to be the real Xinjiang people, so that they can pass off as the real thing. Let these fake Xinjiang people become officials and deprive Xinjiang people of their right to autonomy.
The Kazakhs and Uighurs who have been replaced by Han Chinese have filled a demographic vacuum in Xinjiang that has emerged in recent years as a result of the ethnic cleansing policy, Sailakjian said.
Official data used to counter Western allegations
Kazakh scholar Rais Khan told the station that he did not believe official figures that the population growth of ethnic minorities was higher than that of Han Chinese.
“This is the data set by the CCP according to its needs, in order to use this census data to give the CCP’s war-wolf diplomacy about human rights in Xinjiang some additional leverage, to show the world that I don’t have any Xinjiang concentration camps and human rights issues.”
Rais Khan said that some Kazakh scholars privately conducted a census of the Kazakh population in Xinjiang a few years ago, and the results were vastly different from the official Chinese data released.
A month ago, China’s CCTV reported that the population of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, including the Uighurs, has been growing consistently. from 2010 to 2018, the population of ethnic minorities grew by 22.14 percent; the Uighur population grew by 25.04 percent; the Han population grew by 2.0 percent.
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