China | Family planning in Xinjiang

Remote control

The government in Xinjiang is trying to limit Muslim births

Three but not free

BIRTH restrictions imposed on China’s ethnic minorities have always been lighter than those on the Han majority. Han Chinese are only now being granted the right to have two children; most minorities living in urban areas have long enjoyed it. Non-Hans living in the countryside are allowed to have three, and sometimes more. But although family-planning rules are now being relaxed in China, in the far-western region of Xinjiang, where ethnic Uighurs make up 50% of the population, the government is tightening controls.

In 1983 Uighurs—never entirely happy with rule by a Han-dominated Communist Party based in far-distant Beijing—rioted when officials introduced the current limits. Some of them saw the restrictions as an affront to Islam. As a result, officials in some areas applied them more flexibly, even allowing couples in some far-flung places to have four or five children. Uighurs have fewer children than they used to, but since 2010 the birth rate has been rising again. In mainly Uighur Kashgar, a prefecture which borders on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, it is four times the national average.

Hans, who feel targeted by rising separatist militancy among Uighurs, worry that they may become outnumbered. So the government is relaxing residency restrictions to attract more Han immigrants. Since 2012 all Hans in southern Xinjiang—a hotbed of separatism—have been allowed to have two children. The government is also trying to curb Uighur births.

Last year Xinjiang’s party chief said it was necessary to lower fertility and implement a family planning policy “equal for all ethnic groups”, as part of efforts to fight terrorism. Early this year another senior official said southern Xinjiang had “worryingly high birth rates”. This year, southern Xinjiang doubled payouts to Uighur couples who have fewer than their quota to 6,000 yuan ($950). Each parent also receives 1,800 yuan a year for life.

In Yining, a city in north-western Xinjiang, which four years ago became the first part of Xinjiang to ban the wearing of face-covering veils in public, a local newspaper reported in March that the government there was cracking down on unauthorised births as part of a battle against “extremism”. In June a township in Yining posted news of a similar campaign against “illegal births”. The government may have made some progress with its assault on large families. Though birth rates in Xinjiang as a whole are rising, those in Yining have been falling for the past three years.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline "Remote control"

The indispensable European

From the November 7th 2015 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Who is up and who is down on China’s economic team

Xi Jinping is in charge. The rest need sorting

A gruesome murder sparks a debate about juvenile justice in China

A system that had become more merciful is being tested


Chinese nationalists have issues with “3 Body Problem”

The show is a hit in the West. But its history lesson is not for everyone