Anatomical Analysis of The Independent Report about the "compulsory sterilization" and "genocide" of Uyghurs in Xinjiang by Adrian Zenz

By Human Rights Institute, SWUPL Source: hri.swupl.edu.cn Published: 2020/9/16 11:21:42

On June 29th, American Jamestown Foundation released the report of German scholar Adrian Zenz, Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control: The CCP's Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang (hereinafter referred to as "Report"). The Report has, as always, discredited and attacked the human rights situation in China's Xinjiang, accusing Xinjiang of implementing the mandatory "genocide" policy under the background of "large-scale bloodline-ethnic control strategy". From the analysis of the Report, we can see that only from the pictures used by Adrian Zenz, the report is extremely imprecise, fictionalized the relationship between pictures and texts, maliciously interpreted the cases, and the conclusion has no factual basis, which is a hodgepodge of random patchwork and subjective speculation. In 2007, Adrian Zenz traveled in Xinjiang, but the pictures in the report did not come from this trip. Instead, he downloaded pictures from some networks that were inconsistent with his report, and deduced the situation of family planning in Xinjiang based on false reports, imagining the so-called "compulsory sterilization" and "genocide" in Xinjiang. As a scholar and researcher, Adrian Zenz's Report is extremely rigorous academic research, contrary to academic norms and academic ethics, and exposed the political attributes of this academic report to a certain extent. These practices are no longer a problem in the academic field, but are carried out politically in the name of academic research.

I. Fictionalizing Graphic Relations

In the Report, Adrian Zenz adopted the "Hollywood editing technique", fictionalized the relationship between pictures and articles in the report, and tried to construct an image with some carefully designed language and several selective pictures.

i. Corrupting pictures to attract attention

From the cover of the report, the fictional figures are spliced with the imaginary situation in Xinjiang to attract attention. This synthetic picture with bad intentions goes against the essence of academic research. Adrian Zenz is keen to use these pictures to imply that there are large-scale monitoring of local ethnic minorities and large-scale forced labor of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. However, the report selectively ignores the efforts made by Xinjiang to achieve peaceful and stable development. For example, the photo of the camera installed on the wall (Figure 1) used in this report is to say that Xinjiang has completely become a heavily guarded prison, and the Uighurs in Xinjiang are completely under control. In fact, the main purpose of installing cameras in public places in Xinjiang according to law is to effectively prevent and combat theft. These measures have enhanced the sense of social security and won the general support of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. These monitoring facilities will not automatically identify and target a specific ethnic group. It scares criminals and protects law-abiding citizens. In fact, this practice is also true in other countries. Here, Adrian Zenz only distorts and exaggerates it.

Figure 1: Cover Pictures of the Report


 
ii. Rambling and imposing graphic relations

Judging from the contents of the Report, Adrian Zenz has repeatedly mentioned the national physical examination in Xinjiang. First of all, in the Report, Zumrat Dawut, Mihrigul Tursun and Rakhima Senbay, three Uyghur mothers who were subjected to forced sterilization, were cited as examples. From the picture attached to the Report (Figure 2), it is the photos of two Uyghur women who were examined in the hospital. The relationship between the pictures and the articles is obvious, which has a strong viewpoint-oriented intention. However, through searching, it was found that the picture came from a popular science article of People's Daily, entitled "'Gynecological Examination has to pick a day. Do you know these 'good days'?" (see link). This popular science article focuses on gynecological examination, and clearly indicates that this picture shows the reality that "on November 11th, 2016, several ethnic minority youths from rural areas in Hotan, Xinjiang enjoyed free health examination for the first time in the 29th Regiment Hospital of the Second Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps". Obviously, Adrian Zenz invented the relationship between pictures and texts by cutting, and his poor technique and mean purpose should be spurned by the academic circles.

Figure 2
(Source:http://lxjk.people.cn/n1/2018/1214/c404177-30468023.html)


 
Meanwhile, the Report said that these health checks have become ubiquitous, especially in Xinjiang's minority regions, as a means to control population growth and enforce the thorough implementation of increasingly intrusive birth control measures. The attached picture (Figure 3) is a photo of a group of elderly people undergoing health check-up, which is intended to use "related" pictures to prove that physical check-up is the content of compulsory family planning. However, through verification, it is found that the picture comes from the Xinjiang News of China News, titled "Twenty-five Regiments of the Second Division: Bao Lian helps to enter the countryside, and the free clinic activities warm people's hearts", with Xinjiang's effort to lift people out of poverty as the main content, and clearly indicates that the picture shows the process of "The Twenty-five Regiments of the Second Division help to enter the rural free clinic activities warm people's hearts" (see link). It can be seen that Adrian Zenz's attempt to prove through pictures can not prove his fabricated lies like "genocide" and "forced family planning", but shows that the public health work in Xinjiang has been fruitful.

Figure 3
(Source:http://www.xj.chinanews.com.cn/bingtuan/20170517/15001.shtml)


 
As far as health examination in Xinjiang is concerned, the development of health service in Xinjiang is an important means to build a "Healthy Xinjiang". Physical examination helps to take effective intervention measures to solve health problems by obtaining residents' health information and evaluating health risks. Xinjiang is located in the northwest of China, where residents eat too salty food and eat too much meat. Most of them like greasy, spicy and roasted food, especially beef, mutton and dairy products, which lead to high incidence of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia. Therefore, it is of great significance to carry out physical examination in Xinjiang. Since 2012, Xinjiang has continued to regard medical treatment as an important project for people's livelihood and people's hearts, and has continuously increased investment in medical and health care to promote the construction of "Healthy Xinjiang". In 2016, in order to fully grasp the main factors affecting their health, Xinjiang established a scientific and complete health record for urban and rural residents, and the grassroots hospitals provided Xinjiang residents with an annual free physical examination, so as to achieve "early detection, early diagnosis, early prevention and early treatment" for various diseases that endanger people's health.

Free physical examination for everyone. Since October 2016, Xinjiang started the first round of national physical examination project, urban and rural residents of Xinjiang can enjoy free physical examination once a year. The national health check-up project focuses on the combination of national health check-up and the improvement of residents' health records. The check-up content is implemented in accordance with the National Basic Public Health Service Standards (2016 Edition) issued by the National Health and Family Planning Commission. All localities, prefectures and cities will increase the check-up items within the scope of the medical check-up standards according to the local high incidence diseases (see link). By 2019, the national physical examination was fully completed, with a total investment of 5.324 billion yuan in Xinjiang and a total of 70.81 million physical examinations for people of all ethnic groups. The average life expectancy of the whole region increased from less than 30 years before the founding of New China to 72 years by the end of 2018, an increase of 2.4 times comparing with the original figure.

Figure 4 (Source: https://m.yaozui.com/p/177255)


 
Medical professionals helping Xinjiang in "group-based" to benefit the recipient areas. In 2016, the aid provinces and cities in Xinjiang started the "group-based" aid work for medical talents. Over the past four years, the "group-based" aid work of medical professionals in Xinjiang has shown a powerful driving and boosting role. Through various forms of assistance such as "providing medical services by hospitals" and "teaching by teachers", the overall service capacity of recipient units has been improved, and some recipient hospitals have achieved leap-forward development. "There are doctors in Xinjiang who are in the local area. We don't have to go to Urumqi and go to other big cities to see a doctor." This is the aspiration of many grassroots patients in Xinjiang.

The healthy development of public health has brought tangible health benefits to the people in Xinjiang, which not only vigorously promoted the construction of "Healthy Xinjiang", but also laid a solid foundation for realizing the goal of "everyone enjoys basic medical and health services". This series of measures has significantly improved the people's sense of acquisition and happiness in the field of health and provided a strong guarantee for the sustainable development of Xinjiang's economy, social harmony and stability, and people's living and working in peace and contentment.

iii. The policy of benefiting talents of all ethnic groups is said to be a means of "assimilation"

The Report mentioned that a large number of Han population poured into Xinjiang, and many of whom have been lured to Xinjiang with promises of high wages, free housing and other types of subsidies, attaching a picture of a beautiful housing community, which is called "newly developed housing for Han immigrants in wujiaqu city, northern Urumqi", with the intention of slandering China's "talent introduction policy" as "using promises such as high wages to attract a large number of Han population to assimilate people in Xinjiang" through relevant pictures. However, through verification, it is found that the picture comes from a recruitment brochure in the job-seeking website of fresh graduates, and the news mainly focuses on the recruitment brochure of the 50th Regiment of the Third Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and clearly indicates that the picture shows the situation of "small town residential quarters" (see link).

Figure 5
(Source:http://www.yingjiesheng.com/job-004-462-404.html)


 
As far as talent introduction in Xinjiang is concerned, due to its special geographical location in the west and its distance from the economically developed coastal areas, the economic and social development level, income level and quality of life in Xinjiang are relatively low, and Xinjiang faces the double difficulties of continuous loss of local talents and difficulty in introducing high-level talents. Faced with this double test, Xinjiang actively takes corresponding measures to solve the problem of talent shortage.

In June 2019, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the Opinions on Encouraging and Guiding Talents to Flow to Hard and Remote Areas and Grassroots Areas. The document pointed out that talents are the key to supporting the accelerated development of hard and remote areas and grassroots units. It is necessary to give full play to the agglomeration effect of industrial and scientific and technological projects and build a platform for talents to start businesses in hard and remote areas and grassroots units. It is not difficult to see that the central document is not only aimed at Xinjiang, but "the vast and remote areas and the grassroots front line". In order to implement the guiding ideology of the Opinions, in December of the same year, Xinjiang Autonomous Region issued the Implementation Plan on Implementing the Opinions on Encouraging and Guiding Talents to Flow to Hard and Remote Areas and Grassroots Areas. Xinjiang will continue to recruit mainland college graduates to work in rural areas of southern Xinjiang, enrich the structure of grassroots talents, and adopt supporting policies such as tax exemption, entrepreneurship loan and entrepreneurship subsidy to attract college graduates to work and start businesses at the grassroots level.

In attracting talents, Xinjiang provides all-round guarantee for the transfer of talents, spouse employment, children's enrollment, housing, continuation of social insurance relationship, medical treatment in different places and support for entrepreneurship. For example, the Tacheng District Human Resources and Social Security Bureau issued the "2020 Tacheng District Institutions Need Shortage Talents Introduction Brief" (see link). It can be seen from the brief that in order to attract talents widely, Tacheng District has provided ten preferential treatment policies such as interim housing, housing purchase subsidy, professional title, spouse placement and visiting relatives, etc.

Figure 6
(Source:http://tc.xjrs.gov.cn/tcpt/html/zxzx/tzgg/60698.shtml)


 
In terms of retaining talents, Xinjiang has released a series of policy dividends, such as implementing the subsidy policy for hard and remote areas, and tilting the income of those who work in high-class areas for a long time; Allow universities and research institutes to independently determine the level of performance pay, and encourage and support the establishment of special salary systems for business backbones, special talents and key key positions (see link); Improve the social insurance system, expand the number of designated medical institutions for medical treatment in different provinces, and facilitate medical treatment in different places; We will further improve the hardware and software conditions of basic education and public medical care at the grass-roots level, improve the level of running education and running medicine, and strive to meet the needs of grassroots talents for medical treatment and children's schooling.

Figure 7
(Source:https://www.xjnu.edu.cn/2020/0312/c12000a104669/page.htm)


 
Of course, Xinjiang has introduced a talent introduction policy to solve the bottleneck of talent introduction, while actively helping grassroots to attract and retain talents, which provides important power and intellectual support for Xinjiang's large-scale development and construction. At the same time, this policy is not only to attract all ethnic talents to work in Xinjiang, but also to attract Xinjiang Uyghur talents to return home and retain Uyghur talents. It is definitely not the intention to borrow talent introduction policy and implement assimilation policy as slandered in Adrian Zenz's report.

iv. Borrowing popular science pictures and forcing false arguments

Adrian Zenz labeled the following two pictures of women's physiological structure in the Report as: "Xinjiang's Health Commission procured four types of IUDs with different shapes in 2019, all of them without strings." and "Tubal ligation sterilization, which can be reversible or irreversible". However, through verification, it is found that the pictures come from the popular science articles of "Big Auntie Net" and "Sohu Net". The title is: "Sister, do you know anything about contraceptive rings?" And "Female ligation, what impact does it have on the body?" (see link), the article mainly focuses on contraceptive measures such as contraceptive ring and ligation. The Report showed obvious general popular picture information in the online news in  an exaggerated way here, and connected with the IUD purchased in Xinjiang, which is obviously suspected of false writing with despicable intention.

Figure 8
(Source:http://dayima.com/articles/article/585)


 

Figure 9
(Source:https://www.sohu.com/a/236183007_377326)


 
II. Fabricating Data Sources

In order to achieve the so-called rigor of the independent Report, Adrian Zenz listed a large number of relevant data in it. However, it is not difficult to find out through actual verification that the data sources in this report are suspected of being fabricated and taken out of context selectively. For example, the report pointed out that "In 2018, Kizilsu Prefecture published this blunt statement, explicitly linking the "free birth control surgery" campaign with an intention to move towards mass sterilizing rural populations." At the same time, a citation in Article 43 is attached for confirmation. However, through actual verification, it is found that the relevant contents cited in this article come from Article 9 (see link) of "Summary of Poverty Alleviation and Development in the First Half of 2018" issued by Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, and have no connection with the relevant situations described in the report. Adrian Zenz's out-of-context and one-sided connection of a sentence with "mass sterilization" is an extremely irresponsible act of falsifying data sources, which goes against the original intention and essence of academic research authenticity and reliability.

Figure 10
(Source:http://www.xjkz.gov.cn/P/C/20792.htm)


 
III. Groundless Conclusion

The conclusion of the Report mentioned that "Xinjiang has reduced the population of ethnic minorities and increased the  population of Han nationality by implementing the population control system, and launched a large-scale sterilization campaign." Based on the above-mentioned one-sided and non-objective data collection and analysis, the conclusion are inaccurate and with obvious malicious slander purposes. According to the "Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook 2019", since the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in September 1982, the basic national policy of "implementing family planning" has been determined. By the end of 2018, the Uighur registered population in Xinjiang has increased from 5,986,800 to 11,678,600, and the overall trend is increasing year by year, accounting for 46.8% of the total population of the autonomous region; The registered population of Han nationality in Xinjiang increased from 5,323,300 to 7,857,400, showing a slow growth trend as a whole, accounting for about 31.6% of the total population of the autonomous region (see Table 1). It is not difficult to find out from the data that the Uyghur population in Xinjiang is always higher than the Han population in Xinjiang, so the so-called "genocide" and "suppression of ethnic minorities" do not exist. Table 1 shows the structural chart of Uyghur and Han populations in Xinjiang from 1982 to 2018. Through this structural chart, we can clearly find that the population changes in Xinjiang are quite normal and there is no so-called "genocide".

Table 1: structural chart of Uyghur and Han populations in Xinjiang from 1982 to 2018


 
Demography is a discipline that studies the phenomenon of population growth or contraction. There are many reasons that affect the population in a region, including social and economic development, medical and health level, education level and other factors besides policies. Therefore, the fertility level of women depends not only on the level of social and economic development, medical and health care, but also on the education level of women of childbearing age and the implementation of the family planning policy. In the report, Adrian Zenz attributed the decline in the fertility rate of Uyghur nationality in Xinjiang to the government's population control, aiming to prove that the decline of Uyghur population was caused by the so-called administrative intervention. This one-sided study linking the single regional population change with the so-called "government intervention" and "genocide" is totally confusing.

IV. Unscrambling the case maliciously

It is not the first time that the samples and selected cases analyzed in the report appear in Adrian Zenz's Report. In order to prove that the declining trend of Uyghur population structure is the result of the so-called "government intervention", Adrian Zenz almost used the same group of people to ferment and concoct constantly, and repeatedly came to the same conclusion to demonize China and simply and rudely fabricate lies.

 The Report quoted an article in the Washington Post on November 7, 2019, titled "She survived a Chinese internment camp and made it to Virginia. Will the U.S. let her stay?", which claimed that Zumrat Dawut was "forced to be sent to a teaching and training center and forced to be ligated". In this regard, Zumrat Dawut's brother, Abdul Heili Dawut, took the initiative to release a video on October 13, 2019, telling the public that "this is completely false" and said in the video that Zumrat Dawut has never been to the teaching and training center, and has never been forced to ligate. He also said in the video: "speak to tell the truth, don't use my sister Zumrat Dawut to make lies and disturb our life." Therefore, the "fact" in the Report that "Zumrat Dawut was forced to be sent to the education and training center and forced to be ligated" is completely false and malicious.

The Report quoted the Associated Press news "Woman describes torture, beatings in Chinese detention camp" in 2018, saying that a Uighur woman named Mihrigul Tursun told her "personal experience", saying that "during detention she and other women were given unknown drugs and injections that caused irregular bleeding and a loss of menstruation cycles". At the same time, the report also quoted the article "Xinjiang: What China shows world vs. what former detainee describes" in Nikkei Asia Review in 2019, saying that "U.S. doctors later determined that she had been sterilized". However, it was found that Mihrigul Tursun and her three children left China from 2016 to 2018 and never came back. Mihrigul Tursun herself has never been imprisoned by Urumqi police, and has never been in a teaching and training center. No one knows where her "experience in prison" came from. Therefore, in the report, Mihrigul Tursun claimed that "she was injected with unknown drugs and injections during her detention, resulting in irregular bleeding and menstrual disappearance" and "Mihrigul Tursun has been sterilized", which is totally untrue and lies with ulterior motives.

From the perspective of sociological research methods, sociological research is a scientific cognitive activity based on sociological theory, using sociological unique research methods to study social actions and social relations in reality, so as to achieve the purpose of understanding, explaining, explaining or predicting certain social phenomena. This cognitive process needs to follow scientific methods, procedures and steps. Therefore, sociological research methods usually require sociologists to go deep into social life and make some investigations and studies. In this way, we can gain a correct understanding of society and put forward valuable suggestions for social development. Adrian Zenz, as a sociology research scholar, collected so-called "first-hand information" mostly from his imagination and fiction. He only made groundless speculation on the family planning situation in Xinjiang based on the false reports formatted by the United States and the West, and imposed a causal relationship between the result of this speculation and the imagined situation of "forced sterilization" and "genocide" in Xinjiang. Adrian Zenz's research thinking based on untrue speculation and groundless speculation objectively reflects that his research is not the sociological research method he flaunted at all, but contrary to academic norms and academic ethics, so his research is extremely unscientific and untrue.

V. Distorting China's Family Planning Policy

From the perspective of legal rights protection, the Report distorts China's family planning policy, ignoring the background and implementation content of China's family planning policy. Unilaterally linked China's past family planning policy with his imaginary "genocide" policy.

 In September 1982, the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China determined that "the implementation of family planning is a basic national policy of China." The Constitution of the People's Republic of China adopted at the Fifth Session of the Fifth National People's Congress in December of the same year clearly stipulates that "the state promotes family planning" and "both husband and wife have the obligation to implement family planning". The practice of China's family planning policy has been undertaken from inland to frontier areas, from urban to rural areas and from Han people to other ethnic groups, in fact, the birth policy has long been more preferential to ethnic groups, including Uighurs. The implementation of family planning in China is to safeguard the Chinese nation's right to subsistence and development, and is in line with the long-term interests of the country and all the people. The main reason for China's implementation of the family planning policy is that the country was in the initial stage of economic and social development at that time, with low economic development level, large population, less cultivated land, weak foundation, relatively insufficient per capita resources and relatively backward culture. Under the current situation of national development at that time, if the population grows too much and too fast, there will be obvious contradictions with the development of economy and society, the utilization of resources and the protection of the environment, which will cause great difficulties for the broad masses of the people including women in employment, education, housing, transportation and medical care. In China, the implementation of family planning is consistent with the fundamental interests of women, because without economic and social development, the living standards of all citizens, including women, cannot be improved.

With the development of the times and the continuous improvement of social and economic level, the family planning policy has undergone important changes. At present, a couple can have two children in China, a couple of urban residents in Xinjiang can have two children and a couple of rural residents can have three children. Therefore, Adrian Zenz's so-called "forced birth control" and "genocide" policy in Xinjiang is entirely out of his imagination.

An "independent Report" like Adrian Zenz's is actually a new trend and new tool of international human rights public opinion concerning Xinjiang. It is a means for Western anti-China forces to interfere in China's internal affairs by making false statements in the name of so-called experts.



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