As Chinese couples get approval for 3 kids, Uighur women still subjected to birth control horrors

China has recently announced that all married couples would now be able to have up to three children, up from the previous limit of two.

But the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government did not scrap birth caps in the entire region of China. China kept a limit on Uighur Muslim parents because of Beijing's attitudes towards its ethnic minorities, particularly those in Xinjiang.

China has been accused of forcing birth control measures on the Uighur Muslim women in the Xinjiang region but the CCP government always denied these allegations and has instead claimed the government has instead helped the minority women out of a patriarchal practice.

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State-run Communist media blamed Xinjiang's previously high birth rates on religious extremism and painted declining fertility as a victory for women's rights. Experts said it is unlikely the rules will be relaxed for minorities any time soon.

In the far-western province of Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of perpetrating genocide against the Muslim-majority Uighur people, the Chinese government has aggressively enforced its family planning laws on minorities since 2017. The local birth rates fell by a third in 2018 as a result of the crackdown.

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The Chinese government strongly denies allegations of genocide and says that any attempts to limit the Uighur population fall within the country's standard birth control policies.

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China has often been accused of widespread human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Up to 2 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are believed to have been placed in mass detention centres in the region, according to the US State Department.

These people have allegedly been subject to indoctrination and abuse.

Beijing, however, claims that these centres are voluntary and provide vocational training as part of a de-radicalisation programme in Xinjiang.

(With inputs from agencies)