Survey debunks lies on Xinjiang's population

A scholar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region published a survey on Monday to debunk the lies and rumors on the region's population.

Entitled "Responding to Adrian Zenz's Lies on Xinjiang's Birth Control: A Survey on Fertility Willingness of Ethnic Minority Women in Xinjiang," the study by Lin Fangfei, associate professor at Xinjiang University, used facts and figures to refute the allegations by Adrian Zenz.

According to Lin's survey, the claims of compulsory sterilization in Xinjiang are, in essence, baseless fake news concocted by the U.S. and some Western foundations and scholars.

In her study, the associate professor debunked six individual lies that appeared in Zenz's report.

Zenz asserted that, since 2015, the natural population growth rate in Xinjiang has dropped sharply.

Lin's survey said the natural population growth rate in Xinjiang has indeed shown a declining trend, but its decline is by no means as "sharp" as described in Zenz's report. And this phenomenon is definitely not due to those causes alleged, groundlessly, by Western governments and scholars.

The demographic change reflects China's long-term efforts and important achievements in promoting policies to protect the rights and interests of women and children, the survey said.

Xinjiang, especially its southern area, has been experiencing rapid social and economic development. More and more ethnic minority women have fully enjoyed the right to education and employment and also obtained more autonomy on reproduction.

Xinjiang's natural population growth rate in 2018 was 6.13 per mille, which was higher than the national natural population growth rate of 3.81 per mille, according to the survey.

Zenz claimed that the Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu has set an unprecedented near-zero population growth target for 2020 -- a mere 1.05 per mille.

Actually, Zenz's report completely falsified these figures, which it attributes to an official document from Kizilsu government. This document clearly indicates that the natural population growth-rate goal in 2020 is 1.05 percent, that is, 10.5 per mille.

Zenz deliberately tampered with the unit of the ratio and fabricated false figures, the survey said.

Zenz also claimed that Xinjiang's government documents stipulate that those ethnic minority women who violate family planning policies would be sent to vocational education and training centers.

"Ironically, after looking through these official documents Zenz listed and quoted in the report, I have not found any evidence to prove Zenz's statement," Lin said in the survey.

Zenz also lied by stating that, in 2018, at least 80 percent of the new IUD insertion procedures in China were performed in Xinjiang.

In fact, according to statistics published by the National Health Commission, the number of new IUD insertion procedures in Xinjiang in 2018 was 328,475, while the number nationwide was 3,774,318, the survey showed.

It is easy to calculate that the number of new IUD insertion procedures in Xinjiang accounted for only 8.7 percent of the national total. Obviously, the percentage alleged by Zenz is far from the real data, the survey said.

"The ethnic equality policies implemented by the Chinese government will definitely lead people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang towards a more prosperous and stable future," said the survey.