Even I, however, must give pause to the depths with which the Communist Party of China, lately overlords of the supposedly autonomous frontier province of Xinjiang, have gone to wipe out the threat of... Islam? Uighurs? who knows anymore?
The Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even as it encourages some of the country’s Han majority to have more children.
While individual women have spoken out before about forced birth control, the practice is far more widespread and systematic than previously known, according to an AP investigation based on government statistics, state documents and interviews with 30 ex-detainees, family members and a former detention camp instructor. The campaign over the past four years in the far west region of Xinjiang is leading to what some experts are calling a form of “demographic genocide.”
The state regularly subjects minority women to pregnancy checks, and forces intrauterine devices, sterilization and even abortion on hundreds of thousands, the interviews and data show. Even while the use of IUDs and sterilization has fallen nationwide, it is rising sharply in Xinjiang.
The population control measures 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, the AP found, with the parents of three or more ripped away from their families unless they can pay huge fines. Police raid homes, terrifying parents as they search for hidden children.
I would encourage whoever is still reading this far down and is prepared to click the link to peruse the Associated Press article on this matter.
With this latest revelation I must say this (at least in a safe-for-NSG way): what particularly struck me as I read through the article is the different treatment of Han and Uighur. While I was always aware that being Han in Xinjiang or indeed any sufficiently recalcitrant Chinese territory gave you some privileges, I believed in my naivete that as long as you didn't rebel and conformed to the strictures of Chinese behavior, you're fine, you will be treated just any Han. Call it but one measure of my optimism in the species, even after years of contradictions thrown at me.
Clearly I was wrong.
Again.
Discuss.