The infanticide of Uighur children

Authorities in Xinjiang, China, wanted parents to space out their babies’ births by at least three years and not have more than three children. If the parents did not follow those rules, the babies paid the ultimate price.

Doctors would either forcibly abort the babies that did not fall within the requirements or kill them after birth.

“It’s an order that’s been given from above,” said Hasiyet Abdullah, an obstetrician who worked in Xingjiang hospitals for 15 years and now lives in Turkey. “It’s an order that’s been printed and distributed in official documents. Hospitals get fined if they don’t comply, so of course they carry this out.”

Abdulla’s account of Uighur infanticide reported by Radio Free Asia on Monday followed a study released in June by German researcher Adrian Zenz exposing forced abortions and sterilizations of the Muslim ethnic minority in the area. The evidence further corroborates Zenz’s claims that the actions against the Uighurs amount to government-led genocide as defined by the United Nations.

“What they’re doing to the Uighurs in Xinjiang is a copy of what they did in China at the height of the one-child policy,” said Reggie Littlejohn, founder of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. The Chinese government claimed participation in the policy was voluntary, but Littlejohn testified before U.S. lawmakers that China forced it upon families.

She previously told Congress that China used infanticide to enforce the one-child policy. During her testimony, Littlejohn presented a thread posted in April 2009 from a website for Chinese gynecologists and obstetricians addressing the question: “What if the infant is still alive after induced labor?” One contributor advised puncturing the fetus’ skull before labor. Another suggested injecting “absolute alcohol” into the fontanelle of late-term infants to avoid a live birth.

Steven W. Mosher of the Population Research Institute said the Chinese government’s use of infanticide is not surprising, but “what’s new about this is that it is being imposed on a minority at the same time that the Han Chinese majority is exempted from it,” unlike the one-child policy. He added that the targeting of the Uighurs is “discrimination that kills. That’s genocide.”

Uighurs, who live in an area they call “East Turkestan” but the Chinese call the “Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region,” are not culturally or genetically Chinese. The Chinese Communist Party is officially atheistic, but Uighurs are mostly Muslim and believe an unborn baby is a gift from God.

Littlejohn noted that the Chinese government attempts to cover up its treatment of Uighurs by claiming it is preventing political upheaval: “Anyone in favor of autonomy in East Turkistan … is considered to be a separatist or even a terrorist, and that’s their excuse: ‘We’re putting down terrorism.’” But instead, she said, “They are trying to control if not eradicate people who believe in God and believe in the sanctity of life.”