The Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uyghurs and others muslim minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even when, the govt is encouraging the country’s Han Majority to have more child. Han Chinese is main ethnic race of China which consists of more than 90% of Chinese population.

Chinese authorities openly advertise birth incentives for those who want to have additional children but they are curbing birth among muslims.

Elsewhere in Xinjiang, in villages and cities with large populations of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other largely Muslim Turkic groups, authorities have taken a very different approach. Xinjiang is the province in China, where muslims are in majority.

The state regularly subjects minority muslim women to pregnancy checks, and forces intrauterine devices, sterilization and even abortion on hundreds of thousands muslim women. Even while the use of IUDs and sterilization has fallen nationwide, it is rising sharply in Xinjiang province, where main population is Muslims.

The population control measures among muslims are backed by mass detention both as a threat and as a punishment for failure to comply. Having too many children is a major reason people are sent to detention camps. Parents with three or more children are ripped away from their families unless they can pay huge fines. Due to strict birth control measures among muslims, the birth rate of muslims has fallen sharply.

Receipt of fine by Chinese Authority for having more children.

The Chinese government implemented the one-child policy in 1980 to control the country’s population growth, which they believed was too rapid and could harm the economy. The policy was primarily aimed at couples in densely populated urban areas.

The policy had several consequences, including:

Reduced fertility rate: The policy significantly reduced China’s fertility rate.

Skewed gender ratio: The policy skewed China’s gender ratio because people preferred to abort or abandon female babies.

Labour shortage: The policy led to a labour shortage as the population aged.

Discrimination against females: The policy was criticized for encouraging discrimination against females, who may have been aborted, abandoned or unregistered.

Poster of Xi-Xingpin with children to promote more child among Han Chinese.

But the main problem China started facing after 35 years of “one child policy” is the labour shortage as aged people increased. The threat might have been even bigger if the policy continued.

This should be known to the readers that China is the only country, which has demolished most of its mosques and has also banned texts of Quran. China also calls Islam as “mental illness.”

Picture source: Google.

The Author of this article is a teacher in New Delhi.