Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS October 20, 1997

by Yuan Xin (pp. 69 - 100)

According to the 1990 national census, the ethnic Uighur population of China totaled 7.207 million people. Thus the Uighurs are, following the Zhuang, the Hui, Manchurian (Man), and the Miao, are China's fifth largest minority ethnic group.

There is little historical data on the Uighur population. It seems likely that the Uighur population was about 250,000 in the late 18th century, to 650,000 in 1831, to 1.13 million in 1887. During the mid 19th century Xinjiang lost over 500,000 sq. km and a portion of its Uighur population as a result of an unequal treaty with Tsarist Russia. In 1908, the Uighur population reached 1.57 million and then by 1949 had reached 3.29 million. During the first half of the 20th

Century Xinjiang's Uighur population enjoyed a population growth rate of twice the national average (1.82 percent vs. 0.80 percent) since remote Xinjiang was relatively undisturbed by the Chinese Civil War and the Japanese invasion. Two concentrations of Uighurs outside of Xinjiang, in Taoyuan County, Hunan Province and Shengchi County, Henan Province totaled one thousand population shortly after the founding of the PRC in 1949. At the founding of the PRC in 1949 over 99 percent of China's Uighur population lived in Xinjiang. (pp. 69 - 72)

According to the 1990 census, the ethnic Uighur population of 7.19 million comprised 47.45 percent of the total population of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Improved medical care and better economic development spurred a rapid increase of the ethnic minority population of Xinjiang beginning in the 1950s just as in other Chinese minority regions. Family planning has been implemented among the ethnic Uighur minority only in the last few years, much later than among the ethnic Han population. Family planning among the ethnic Uighurs of Xinjiang began in late 1988. (p. 74)

Age structure: The Uighur ethnic minority has the largest proportion of elderly and one of the largest proportion of young people of any of China's ethnic groups: this creates an especially large social and economic burden of supporting the young and the elderly. (pp. 74 - 75)

Gender structure: In 1964 the gender ratio was an abnormally high 115 males to 100 females. With social progress and the higher status of women, the gender ratio has fell to 105.1 by 1984 and 104.5 by 1990. Among the elderly population there is an unusual excess of males compared with females: a ratio of 160:100 in the 60 - 64 years of age cohort in 1990. The higher proportion of males seems the result of the lower social status of women, the heavy responsibilities of women at home, in the fields, and in taking care of herd animals. and the widespread custom of early marriage, having children early and having many children. For example, the 1990 census showed that the death rate for women in the 15 - 49 age cohort exceeded that of men.

DROPPING DEATH RATE, LONGER LIVES

The sharp drop in the Uighur death rate is the result of better medical care, better nutrition and poverty alleviation and the basic elimination of contagious diseases long endemic to Xinjiang. The birth rate although declining is still high.... population growth is the result of the death rate coming down before the birth rate declines. As living standards rise the desired number of children has been dropping. In the 35 - 49 year cohort women want 5 - 6 children; in the 15 - 34 year cohort women want 3 - 4 children. Urban Uighur women want just 2 - 3 children. The desires of Uighur women are coming into basic alignment with the family planning regulations for the Uighur people. (pp. 77 - 78)

EARLY MARRIAGE COMMON, DIVORCE RATE HIGH, LARGE FAMILIES

The Uighur ethnic group has several distinctive characteristic in its marriage and family life:

-- one husband, multiple wives. Sanctioned by the Islamic religion of the Uighurs, in conflict with the marriage law of the PRC. This practice is gradually disappearing.

-- marriage must be within the Uighur ethnic religion and within the Islamic religion. Now marriage outside the ethnic group is gradually becoming accepted.

-- early marriage is common but gradually becoming less prevalent. The implementation of the PRC marriage law in the Xingjiang Uighur Autonomous Region calls for a minimum age at marriage of 20 for men and 18 for women. Nonetheless, because of the strong influence of the Islamic religion regulations that males are adult at 12 and females at 9, early marriage is common. Despite 40 years of the PRC marriage law, the 1990 census recorded 7.58 percent of the 15 - 17 year cohort of females and 4.64 percent of the 15 - 19 age cohort of males as already

married. This is much higher than the national average for these cohorts of 1.09 percent for females and 1.80 for males. (pp. 81 - 82)

-- men are generally 5 - 10 years older than their wives at marriage with a 20 year gap not uncommon.

-- high divorce rate and high remarriage rate. Early marriage arranged by parents results in mismatches not in accord with the physical maturity and personal wishes of the partners. Divorce is frequent, carries no social stigma. Parents do not interfere with the choice of subsequent spouse so this second marriage so there is much more freedom in making a second marriage. In 1990 the Uighur divorce rate at 5.25 percent per year was over seven times the PRC average. A study of marriages and divorces in Keping County, Xinjiang found that during 1980

- 1988 found 2797 marriages and 630 divorces or one divorce for every four marriages.

-- nuclear family. Uighur children leave home and start their own household at marriage. (pp. 81 - 87)

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

-- According to the 1990 census the proportion of illiterate and semi-literate people in the ethnic Uighur population was 26.58 percent compared with the national average of 22 percent.

-- Agricultural sector accounted for 84.07 percent of the active population in 1990.

-- Migration is becoming more common as the economy developed but most migration within Xinjiang rather than inter-regional. (pp. 87. 89)

SOCIETY, ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT

Xinjiang, in China's northwest, has a surface area of 1.66 square kilometers and occupies one-sixth of China's national territory. Xinjiang has long borders of 5400 km which touch on eight foreign countries. Xinjiang depends on oasis irrigation agriculture. Agriculture accounted for 34.1 percent of the regional economy in 1990.

In 1992, Xinjiang had 47.01 million mu (3.136 million hectares) of arable land or 3 mu per capita. Food production totaled 7.06 million tons or 225 kg. per person. Food production is in surplus. Xinjiang is one of China's top producers of cotton and grain. Xinjiang has 859 million mu (57.30 million hectares) of grassland, second only to Inner Mongolia and Tibet. Xinjiang's coal and oil reserves are the greatest in China. In 1992 Xinjiang farmers has an annual income of 740 RMB; city dwellers 1753 RMB.

Xinjiang is surrounded by mountains. It depends upon snow melt water from these mountains to irrigate its oases. Xinjiang's oases are isolated, separated from each other by large expanses of desert. Transportation is poor and expensive; as a result many regions are basically closed economies. In 1992, the average income of people in the Hotan region was 903 RMB and 1185 in Kashgar, respectively the lowest and third lowest per capita income of Xinjiang's regions. Nonetheless Hotan and Kashgar are rank second and third highest in

Xinjiang in their population growth rate. Increasing populations in the oases has put great pressure on water resources, loss of vegetation on the fringes of the oases, accelerating desertification and rasslands deterioration. Of the 20 counties of Xinjiang in which the ethnic Uighur population comprises 90 percent or more of the population, 13 have been designated by the PRC government as key

poverty alleviation counties. Many of these poor counties of southern Xinjiang are trapped in a vicious cycle of "getting poorer and poorer but more and more children are born". pp. 90 - 92

FAMILY PLANNING IN ETHNIC UIGHUR AREAS

Family planning for the ethnic Uighur minority was merely voluntary until the family planning regulations of 1988 were promulgated by the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. These regulations called for a maximum of two (three under certain conditions) children for urban Uighurs and a maximum of three (four under certain conditions) children for rural Uighurs. The practice of family planning doubled to over half of the Uighur population between 1988 and 1992.

AUTHOR YUAN XIN DRAWS CONCLUSION AND MAKES POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

-- Relatively rapid population growth

The ethnic Uighur population now increases at an annual rate of 2.41 percent. Minority population growth accounts for three-quarters of the population growth of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

-- Poverty

According to 1992 statistics, the per capita income of Kashgar 669 RMB, Hotan 453 RMB, and Kezhou 431 RMB are below the Xinjiang average of 740 RMB. Sixteen counties with ethnic Uighur populations of 90 percent or more are among the 27 poverty alleviation counties designated in Xinjiang for the Eighth Five Year Plan. The 2.98 million people of these poor counties account for 41 percent of the entire Uighur population of China. Poverty expresses itself in that the population and economic growth are not in sync; these counties are in a vicious

cycle of poverty in which they "get poorer and poorer as more and more children are born".

-- Environmental problems

The Xinjiang environment is fragile: over 90 percent of the land is mountain, hilly, desert, or semi-desert waste (gobi). Only 5 percent of Xinjiang's area supports human life so the population pressure on the oases is very high. Some oases have a population density of over 197 people per square kilometer. The area lost to the desertification has increased from 370,000 sq. kilometers to over 420,000 square kilometers. The advance of the desert has forced people to move upstream along the rivers. The location of the ruins of the ancient

cities conquered by the desert and the location of human habitation today is a sign of the advance of desertification. Increasing population overloads the environment as plants and grasses which stabilize desert sands are uprooted. Excessive grazing on grasslands, uprooting of medicinal grasses and green plants all facilitate the advance of the desert. Over 50 percent of the irrigated land along the Kashgar river has become salinized; in some counties the proportion of

salinized land exceeds 90 percent. In Hotan county, the land is sandy,

there is much windblown sand, the soil is covered by a sandy layer,

the land does not retain water well and the effectiveness of fertilizer

is limited.

-- Education backward

The educational level of the ethnic Uighur people is relatively low. Among people age 15 and up, 26.58 percent were illiterate or semi-literate in 1990. There are some young illiterates produced because the local school is not big enough. In some households the parents are not healthy enough to earn a living so the children must begin work at a very early age. Since the beginning of the contract system, children have tended to quit school to earn additional income

for their families. This problem is especially serious in Kashgar, Hotan and Kezhou. Some children have no support because their parents have divorced and remarried.

-- Frequent divorce and remarriage. This tends to increase number of children born since newly remarried people will want children. Increases money spent on marriage celebrations.

YUAN XIN'S POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

-- Unrealistic to expect any rapid improvement in this impoverished area because of its closed culture and economy, low productivity.

-- Family planning must be stressed. To quote President Jiang Zemin (in 1992) "If China is to develop, it must as it focuses on economic development, at the same time stress family planning. There must be no wavering on this point. As the socialist market economy is constructed the government must fulfill its function of controlling population growth. If we were simply to rely on the market to control population growth, China would be unable to achieve its family planning goals." This means that family planning work must be strengthened. A network of family planning services must be built throughout Xinjiang. Participants in family planning should be given insurance; the status of family planning worker should be raised.

The author (Yuan Xin) notes that family planning work in Xinjiang is seriously deficient. Family planning among the Uighurs can only be successful if the family planning workers are themselves Uighurs. Without Uighur family planning workers, success is impossible. Uighur family planning workers must be trained. Economic resources for family planning must be assured. There must no longer be cases where clinics or hospitals refuse to do family planning related operations or even close down family planning clinics because of a lack of funds.

-- Laws on family planning are needed. Family planning is part of the PRC Constitution yet there are few detailed laws on family planning for implementing national policy. Detailed laws on family planning make clear the duties of the citizen and give family planning workers the power to enforce the law.

-- Work with Uighur society influentials such as religious leaders, village elders to promote family planning Nearly all Uighurs believe in Islam. The cooperation and influence of religious leaders, village leaders, and the elderly in implementing family planning policy is valuable. (pp. 93 - 100)