China and the Uyghurs: Falling Uyghur Birth Rates in Xinjiang - A Response to the Pro-CCP "Left"

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In the second part of our article on Chinese imperialism, we wrote: "The huge network of concentration camps, disappearances, rapes, torture, etc. in Xinjiang shows that the actions of anti-Uyghurs and the vast majority of Muslims in Xinjiang are not fictional, but Brutal truth." The so-called pro-authoritarian left attacked our article.

Per-Åke Westerlund Socialist Justice Party (ISA Sweden)

In the second part of our article on Chinese imperialism, we wrote: "The huge network of concentration camps, disappearances, rapes, torture, etc. in Xinjiang shows that the actions of anti-Uyghurs and the vast majority of Muslims in Xinjiang are not fictional, but Brutal truth."

We also expect some Stalinists, neo-Maoists, and tankists to focus on supporting Beijing's capitalist dictatorship on Xinjiang issues. They will especially focus on Adrian Zenz, because we write:

“These facts were first published internationally by researcher Adrian Zenz, a Christian fundamentalist and right-winger. But those who use Zenz’s political stance to discredit him, including Chinese state media, ignore that his arguments are from China Official statistics. He is the focus of pro-CCP propaganda, but these facts are also corroborated by the stories told by women in concentration camps.”

Tankers and pro-CCP so-called leftists attack our article based on three basic points: (1) our evidence is from Zenz and is false; (2) the women who tell rape stories are lying; (3) we stand in on the standpoint of the United States. They are dead wrong and have only one purpose: to escape the real discussion of oppression in China and Xinjiang.

Statistical data

We obviously don't rely on Zenz on matters of fact, but as we pointed out, he was the first to publish these facts, the arguments used by the Chinese dictatorship and its apologists. However, his published birth rate facts come from the Chinese government's statistical yearbook on China and Xinjiang. Zenz is not at all alone in publishing these facts. For example, the facts in this "Associated Press" article are from the "Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook."

Another report is also based on India's WION news network "Xinjiang Fertility Rate Declining".

We have of course checked these facts ourselves. Please click here for the Chinese Statistical Yearbook . The English version of the "China Statistical Yearbook" contains data on regional birth rates and ethnic minority populations . It provides demographic data on ethnic minorities across the country, including Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

It shows that the total birth rate in Xinjiang has dropped significantly from 16% to 8%. Even including the Han population, whose birth rate has declined much more slowly, Xinjiang's birth rate has gone from above the national average to now below 2 percent of the national average.

On IUD and family planning policy, China's Health and Hygiene Statistical Yearbook (2016-2020) presents interesting data, including the total number of contraceptives, IUD implantation figures, IUDs Remove numbers and abortions.

1. The rate of IUD implantation has been high in Xinjiang, where more than 50% of birth control operations are for IUD implantation, no other region in China has such a high rate of IUD implantation . The rate of IUD implantation is usually between 20% and 30% (as a percentage of all birth control operations) in other regions, including Tibet and Guangxi. This means that Xinjiang has an unusually high rate of IUD implantation due to mandatory family planning.
2. The data on Xinjiang in 2018 cannot be added at all. The "% of total birth control operations" figures for different types of procedures add up to only 45.09%, while all other regions/provinces add up to 100%. Likewise, Tibet's 2017, 2018, and 2019 figures don't add up to 100%, so Xinjiang isn't the only target of repression. These incomplete figures reveal a huge "grey area" that exists only in minority areas.
3. If you look at the 2014/15 data, about 40% of "birth control operations" in almost all provinces were performed with IUD implants, and now all regions except Xinjiang have stopped such "birth control operations". And crucially, the extreme form of the one-child policy has persisted in Xinjiang and has been abolished elsewhere. China's one-child policy from 1979 to 2015 allowed most families to have only one child.

All of the above facts prove that the tank faction's attempts to justify Xinjiang's compulsory birth control policy are hollow.

women and rape

In one email, one tank pie specifically named a woman who told her story of rape and torture in various interviews. Anyone who knows a thing or two about violence against women knows how much time it takes for victims to tell others about rape and torture before speaking out against brutal dictatorships in the media. Also, telling a true story takes time. The Chinese dictatorship is notoriously threatening to retaliate against relatives, as a way to put pressure on Chinese dissidents overseas, whether of Han background or ethnic minorities, to drop accusations against the regime and stop using the media speak.

As has been demonstrated in many countries in the last period: Egypt, Sudan, Burma, Colombia, etc., mass rape and violence against women is an important part of the counter-revolutionary repressive resistance. It is standard practice for oppressors to deny that this happens and to call women liars.

Amnesty International’s recent (June 2021) report on Xinjiang, “Like We Are Enemies at War,” is based on interviews with 55 people about concentration camps — torture, forced confessions, “education” — and the targeting of Uyghurs. Mass surveillance of people. It also involves the disclosure of official Chinese documents. It includes an overview of interviews with rape victims .

The Chinese regime first denied the existence of concentration camps and later acknowledged their existence, claiming they were for "re-education." However, no independent observers were allowed into the camp. A Swedish journalist who visited Xinjiang this summer reported that every step was being watched, and locals were afraid to talk to her.

“Xinjiang people are probably the most regulated in the world, everything they do is monitored. New mobile SIM cards have to be registered with real names, there are police checkpoints at every city border, and everyone has to get out of the car and enter the instant police station” ”, where luggage and cell phones are checked. Their whereabouts are tracked through their cell phones and GPS transmitters in their cars. Surveillance cameras are everywhere. Facial recognition technology is used for everything from payments to car refueling.”

class position

The truth that Xinjiang cannot hide reflects what kind of regime the Tank faction is defending.

U.S. imperialism has long cooperated with Beijing. The historic rapid growth in production, trade and finance benefited the ruling classes in both countries. After 9/11 in 2001, the then US President George W. Bush established "anti-terrorism" cooperation with China. Beijing uses this to suppress Xinjiang. Under Obama, the United States has continued to remain silent on the repression of Uyghurs and across China.

It was after the imperialist struggle between U.S. and Chinese imperialists intensified that the Trump administration raised the Xinjiang issue. As recently as June 2019, Trump told Xi that it was " completely right " to build concentration camps in Xinjiang, according to his security adviser John Bolton.

U.S. imperialism has no intention of supporting Uyghurs, other Muslims, or workers and youth who are suffering from growing repression in China. U.S. imperialism supports and maintains good relations with many dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Its "democratic wars", which brought disaster in Afghanistan and Iraq, were a show of strength.

American imperialism wants China to become its capitalist vassal, not to challenge its global domination economically and militarily. Currently, its strategy is to contain and limit Beijing's regional and global influence. If U.S. imperialism later considers regime change in Beijing, the new regime, if it can be established, will not be democratic and will not serve the interests of the workers and the poor.

The China Labour Forum and the ISA raised the issue of Xinjiang long before it became a major issue in the global media and the new Cold War, mainly in response to the heightened oppression of Muslim Uyghurs coincident with the restoration of Chinese capitalism. Xinjiang is geopolitically strategic, a gateway to markets and trade, in a volatile region of frontier and great power competition (bordering Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Central Asia). It has also become a major producer of oil, gas, cotton, tomatoes and solar panels, even globally. This coincides with Beijing's zero tolerance for ethnic and minority rights claims, and it explains the overreaching repression of a regime that has zero tolerance for opposition within its borders.

Marxists have always taken an independent stand of the working class, seeking what is the best way of struggle and consciousness to achieve socialism. This requires opposing both U.S. imperialism and Chinese imperialism.

It is against the interests of U.S. imperialism for workers, youth and ethnic minorities to fight for their rights and resist oppression in China. Likewise, Beijing does not want to see workers strike and movements against oppression, such as Black Liver Matter (BLM) in the United States. The ruling classes in various countries do not want to see mass movements from below to challenge their power and institutional systems. Socialists represent full democratic rights - support the right of workers to run unions, demonstrate, mobilize and employ, support youth, climate activists, feminists, lgbt+ activists and others to organize. On all these key issues, the Tank faction has either remained silent or defended a vigorous repression of these rights. In their worldview, there is only one binary choice: either support the CCP and Chinese imperialism, or align with US imperialism. This is certainly not the position of Marx or Lenin.

As Marxists, we support the abolition of capitalism and its replacement by a socialist society in the United States, China, and globally. When American politicians forewarned the arrival of socialism and the Chinese regime imprisoned striking workers, they did so out of fear of the future of their economic and political system.