Pressure is mounting on the Government to confront the Chinese Communist Party as MPs draw attention to the population suppression measures taken against the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, China.
In an ‘Urgent Question’ to the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP said:
“[It has been] shown that the Chinese Government forced Uyghur women into sterilisation. As a result, the Uyghur population in those regions fell by as much as 84% between 2015 and 2018. That is action verging, I believe, on genocide”.
Following this Scott Benton MP said that the Minister should be “absolutely appalled by the credible reports of forced abortions and forced sterilisation”.
He went on to ask: “Will he commit to taking action on this by formally and publicly condemning the population control practices of the Chinese Communist Party and requesting that these cease immediately?”
The Minister for Asia, Nigel Adams confirmed that the Government will “continue to hold China to account…” He also stated that the Chinese Ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office to meet with the permanent under-secretary.
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Uyghur forced abortion and sterilisation
Earlier this month, Fiona Bruce MP urged the Government to do all within its power to end the “appalling” treatment of the Uyghur community at the hands of the Chinese Government.
Mrs Bruce said: “[The Uyghurs] are violated through forced birth control, pregnancy checks, the mandatory insertion of painful intrauterine devices, forced sterilisation and abortions. We hear that that is happening at scale, to hundreds of thousands of women”.
“These population control measures are backed by mass detention as a punishment for failure to comply. The threat of being sent to prison – to the camps that we hear so much about – hangs over these women”.
Forced abortions in China
Forced abortions and sterilisations are a well-documented phenomenon in China. This year a doctor who escaped the regime in China shared how she participated in at least 500-600 operations on Uyghur women in the country, including forced abortion, forced sterilisation and forced removal of wombs.
Speaking to ITV News, the Uyghur woman also revealed abortions were carried out at full-term and that infanticide – the purposeful causing of a baby’s death – was common practice.
These attacks on the Uyghur population, through forced abortion and sterilisation, are taking place at the same time as hundreds of thousands are being used for slave labour. UK businesses are currently being urged to ensure their supply chains do not participate in this in any way.
Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said:
“The treatment of the Uyghur population in China is despicable, particularly the abhorrent practice of forced abortion and sterilisation. MPs are absolutely right to bring up this issue and pressure the Government to act. The simultaneous pressure on business to ensure their supply chains are not participating in the persecution of the Uyghurs is certainly a step in the right direction too. Hopefully, growing international pressure will force the Chinese Communist Party to end this barbarism”.
Editor's note: This article was published by Right to Life UK and is reprinted with permission.
