Chinese officials claim the Uygur population saw a significant growth over the past decade, while the government numbers show that Xinjiang's total population was nearly 25 million in 2018, including about 12.7 million Uygurs. That exceeds the growth of China's dominant ethnic group, the Han, during the same period which increased by about two percent. Meanwhile, China has invited hundreds of foreign envoys to visit Xinjiang over the past years, as it rejects Western allegations of human rights violations.