China’s Uyghur Persecution Is Like The Holocaust, Except For One Factor: How Will It End?

The ongoing systematic persecution of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China under the brutal Chinese Communist Party is being widely criticized by those who value fundamental religious freedom — and rightly so. In addition, those who are general critics of the CCP cite the ongoing human rights abuses of the Chinese government as part of their condemnation.

A common comparison used — fairly aptly — by many is that the violent discrimination of Uyghur Muslims in China is comparable to the treatment of Jews and other minorities under Nazi Germany.

While this is in many ways a valid comparison, there is one question whose answer should cause great concern for those who decry the treatment of these minorities under the Chinese regime: why would it change?

While many correctly view the Allies’ victory in World War II over Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan as the reason for the forceful end of the implementation of the Final Solution, they simultaneously miss a key point. World War II was not fought because of the discrimination or persecution of Jews.

In 1942, the British government and other UN member nations were told of the genocidal objectives of the Nazis, and while the evidence presented by Polish officials was widely condemned, no specific military action followed. World War II began a few years prior in 1939 after Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and the United States didn’t enter the war until December of 1941.

Each one of these pivotal dates came long after the emergence of the Nazi’s mandated anti-Semitism which, bolstered by an enthusiastic populace, resulted in early atrocities such as 1938’s Kristallnacht.

In other words, World War II broke out solely because of disputes over land. Victory resulted in the end of the Holocaust, but it remains questionable at best whether conflict would have occurred if the Nazi’s “only” offense was religious persecution. After all, Jews have been persecuted across Europe for hundreds of years, with the Nazis taking it to an industrial level.

This brings us back to China. Unlike most other hyperbolic comparisons which alike events or policies to Nazi Germany or the Holocaust, what we are witnessing in China is indeed comparable to the evil of the Third Reich. People are being inhumanely persecuted based solely on their membership to a religious group, held in concentration camps and subjected to torture and forced labor. According to the Holocaust Law, this is a valid comparison to make.

However, we must then note the key difference between Nazi Germany and the Chinese Communist Party. Under Hitler, the Nazis were hellbent on expanding their borders, achieving greater “Lebensraum” (the “living space” deemed necessary for the survival of Germany) through territorial aggression and domination. Under President Xi Jinping, China’s imperialistic actions are comparatively subtle. 

With the added consideration of economic entrenchment — with western economies inescapably reliant on China — and advancement in warfare — with nuclear arms making any global conflict immeasurably shorter and inevitably deadlier, it is incredibly unlikely that any global conflict capable of ending the persecution of Uyghurs will break out.

Unfortunately, this raises the obvious and horrendous question: what else could?

Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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