China denies allegations of forced sterilisation of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province

Chinese officials have acknowledged a massive drop in birth rates in the country's Xinjiang province, where Uighur Muslims are reportedly being held in what they call "re-education camps". Chinese officials in a letter to CNN have confirmed that the birth rate in the western region has dropped rapidly between 2017 and 2018 but denied reports of forced sterilization. 

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Reports had earlier emerged that the Chinese Communist Party is taking draconian steps to reduce the population of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province. Media reports suggested that the government in Xinjiang is conducting regular pregnancy checks on women, subjecting them to sterilization and forcing them to undergo abortions. Officials from the province recently sent a letter to CNN, where they admitted the reduced birth rates but refused to accept allegations of forced sterilization and other human rights abuses. 

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The letter was in response to a story CNN published in July that accused Beijing of targetting Uighur women by forced birth control and abortions among other things. The government in theletter claimed that the population of Uighurs have grown in past four years saying it has risen by almost 14 percent. 

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Systematic targetting of Uighurs

Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims in the Xinjiang province, also known as East Turkestan, who have been facing persecution in the name of “re-education” in the western province of China. The systematic targetting of the Uighur Muslims began since the 2014 Kunming railway station attack, where a group of knife wielding terrorists attacked passengers killing 31 civilians and injuring more than 140 others.

Read: China Forces Birth Control On Uighurs To Suppress Population

(Image Credit: AP)