OPINION: Why Jewish-Americans Should Care About Uighurs in China

An Uighur Market in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China (Flickr)

Dominic Gordon (SFS ‘24) is a guest writer for the Caravel's Opinion section. The content and opinions of this piece are the writer’s and the writer’s alone. They do not reflect the opinions of the Caravel or its staff.

My father’s ancestors, Jews in the Pale of Settlement, faced some of the worst living conditions in all of Europe. To my best knowledge, they were Lithuanian Jews in what is now Belarusian territory. Jews in Europe never particularly had it good, especially my ancestors and their relatives, living under Imperial Russian rule. Until recently, the Jewish population of Europe faced beatings, harassment, and killing. 

Like many others, my ancestors made the trip to the New World at the turn of the century. Like many Jewish families, they found the United States to be a much more agreeable place than Europe. They anglicized my last name, our family name, and they adapted to life in the U.S. What’s left of my Jewish heritage is quite vague, but I still feel a connection to the traditions of my ancestors. 

It’s hard to envision that, not even a hundred years ago, a modern state attempted to exterminate anyone with a drop of Jewish heritage. In the United States Midwest, I’ve grown up with a fair share of anti-Semitism, but I still find it impossible to imagine the Shoah happening in all its brutality, even when I hear survivors discuss it. 

Had I been born in the wrong time or the wrong place, I would have been killed for having a Jewish father. The idea of purging specific races or ethnicities from the human genome has always seemed quite distant from my privileged life in the Midwest.

I thought the era of genocide had long passed. But then I heard about what the Chinese government was undertaking in the Xinjiang Province. The actions of the Chinese government can only be described as genocide. The Chinese government may not be putting people in gas chambers, but they are attempting to eradicate the entire Uighur ethnicity from existence. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is currently committing genocide in Xinjiang province.

The actions of the Chinese Communist regime may be different in their brutality from those of the Nazi regime, but no state today has come closer to replicating the Nazis’ agenda against Jewish people than has the current Chinese state has against Uighurs in Xinjiang. 

The CCP has placed millions into concentration camps, depriving Uighur victims of the most basic right to freely exist. There have been confirmed reports of mass sterilizations and rapes. China is apparently controlling whom Uighurs can marry in order to force them to marry into the dominant Han Chinese culture. The CCP justifies rehashing the moral failures of the twentieth century by claiming that their version is necessary in order to promote “stability.” What is the impetus for all this heavy-handedness? The impetus was that a small number of people in Xinjiang were affiliated with an extremist movement. In many ways, this acts as a modern-day stab in the back myth. The CCP falsely blames the entire Uighur ethnicity for terrorism, and the CCP uses it as an excuse to persecute the entire ethnicity. 

I compare the CCP to Nazis because they are, in fact, comparable. The CCP is putting millions of people in concentration camps. The CCP is using mass sterilization against those that the CCP considers “undesirable” in much the same manner that the Nazis did. Finally, China is using propaganda in the same way that propaganda was used against the Jewish people. The CCP is using “stability” as a call for the eradication of an entire group of people. China is dehumanizing the Uighur people in order to curtail the criticisms that will rightfully be brought against the regime. In many ways, this is a rehashing of the twentieth century’s worst atrocity.

The CCP seems to believe that, by destroying Uighur culture and halting Uighur births, China will benefit. I have a better idea: Support the Uighur community. 

For what it’s worth, protecting the rights of Jews was a pretty successful idea in the United States, judging by the many accomplishments of U.S. citizens of Jewish ancestry in this country. One can only read through the list of notable Jewish Americans to see how important Judaism has been to the culture and history of the United States. At this university alone, our alumni include the current Jewish Chief of Staff and a Jewish Nobel Laureate that began his medical career at Georgetown. Ethnic and religious minorities that are allowed to maintain their own cultures can be quite successful, and they can contribute to the well-being of their nations.

Many apologists, including Xi Jinping himself, continue to claim that the policies in Xinjiang were successful. I would like to ask these apologists to name what is successful about these policies. Are the policies successful for Uighurs? I think not, and I think Beijing knows that to be the answer too. I do not know the feelings of anyone other than myself, but I would like to think that even those deep inside the Communist Party feel shame for the actions in Xinjiang as human beings should feel guilt for the genocide of millions. I think they realize just how “successful” this nonsense has been.

But Beijing never admits that it is wrong. Beijing cannot admit that its policies in Xinjiang were wrong, that locking up millions is a universal wrong. The CCP’s actions are the crime of the 21st century.

I understand that many may believe my comparison of modern-day China with the actions of Nazi Germany is an exaggeration, but I believe that juxtaposing the two is the only way for others to grasp the truly despicable nature of the CCP’s actions: the CCP is trying to eliminate an entire ethnicity from existence. During the Holocaust, too many sat back and let that happen. Too many people, and their governments, were ignorant of the fate of the Jewish people, turning a blind eye to the actions of the Third Reich. 

We cannot let that happen again. The CCP might not be the exact same as the Nazi Party, but the CCP’s actions speak for themselves.

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The author would like to acknowledge his friends Ernest Ntangu and Soraya Bata for their advice in the writing of this article.