Prefecture in Xinjiang sets near-zero population growth target?

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo published a press statement titled "On China's Coercive Family Planning and Forced Sterilization Program in Xinjiang" on 29 June 2020. On the same day, the Associated Press released an investigation report titled "China forces birth control on Uygurs to suppress population" (See this report at https://apnews.com/e2674c069d46f6d5c9a3d3be40d612d4, accessed on September 1, 2020.). Both Pompeo' statement and the Associated Press's report claimed that aiming to curb the Muslim population in Xinjiang, Chinese government has taken a series of draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uygurs and other minorities.

One research report, written by Adrian Zenz and titled by "Sterilizations, IUDs, and mandatory birth control: The The Chinese Communist Party's campaign to suppress Uygur birth rates in Xinjiang" (hereinafter, referred to as Zenz's report), was published by Jamestown Foundation in June 2020. Zenz's report is the main citing source of Pompeo's statement and the Associated Press's investigation report. Zenz's report claimed that its data was quoted from China's official documents and statistical yearbook, yet in fact, this report has a large number of problems, mainly including fabricating facts and falsifying data. The wording that Chinese government has adopted compulsory sterilization to Uygur women in Xinjiang, in the essence, is a baseless fake news which was concocted by US government and some western foundations and scholars with anti-communist background.

Adrian Zenz,the author of the report, is a Germany scholar hired by The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation — an extreme right-wing organization sponsored by the US government. Since its establishment in 1983, this foundation, disregarding the objective facts, has repeatedly conferred so-called "human rights awards" to some criminal terrorists, and slandered and denied China's salient contribution in fighting against COVID-19. In his report, Zenz listed his so-called significant research findings of Chinese government suppressing Uygur birth rates by mandatory measures, and declared that "[f]or the first time, the veracity and scale of these anecdotal accounts (These anecdotal accounts here refer to "mandatory birth control in Xinjiang".) can be confirmed through a systematic analysis of government documents" (Zenz's report, p2.). In the following sections, using objective facts and statistical data, we will refute Zenz's "significant" research findings and eventually expose how he concocted these lies through fabricating facts and falsifying data.

Rumor: Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture has set an unprecedented near-zero population growth target for 2020 — a mere 1.05 per mille.

Fact:

Citing the data from one official document titled "Departmental Budget of Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture Health Commission 2020", Zenz claimed that Kizilsu government has "set an unprecedented near-zero population growth target" (Zenz's report, p.2, p9, p25.), that is Kizilsu's natural population growth rate plans to be reduced to 1.05‰ in 2020 (Ibid, p9.). Zenz thus used this new "evidence"to continue confirming his absurd conclusion that Chinese government has adopted compulsory birth control against Uygurs and other minorities.

Actually, Zenz's report completely falsified the figures in the official documents of Kizilsu government. In this document from Kizilsu's Health Commission (I directly downloaded this official document from the website link provided by Zenz's report.), it clearly indicates that the goal of natural population growth rate in 2020 is 1.05% (see Figure 1), that is 10.5‰, if conversed into the unit of per mille. This number is not much different from Kizilsu's natural population growth rate of 11.45% (See Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook 2019,"Table 3-6: Natural Changes of Population by Prefecture, City, County", p83.). However, Zenz, through deliberately tampering with the unit of the ratio and fabricating false figures, attacked and discredited the family planning policies implemented by Chinese government with sinister purposes.