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HAWORTH: China Is Our Generation’s Nazi Germany

   DailyWire.com
Uyghur Turks living in Istanbul gather to protest China for their family members, who have been held in Chinese camps, at Beyazit Square in Istanbul, Turkey on July 27, 2020. (Photo by Erhan Elaldi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Erhan Elaldi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The legacy of both Nazi Germany and World War II has left a scar across our political and social psyche still visible to this day. Seventy-five years after Allied forces saved Europe from the bloody grasp of tyranny, we still use the crimes of the Nazis as a baseline for measuring unimaginable evil. One of the most appalling labels which can be applied to anyone in the political space is still “Nazi” or “fascist,” and such labels have become an effective arrow in the Left’s sheath of ad hominem attacks against conservatives.

In addition to the understandable horror associated with the label of Nazism or fascism, references to the Holocaust often provide the “shock factor” cherry on the Left’s cake of hyperbole. One such obscene example was provided by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who compared illegal immigrant detention centers to concentration camps.

“I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that we should not that ‘Never Again’ means something and that the fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it,” said the Democratic congresswoman.

Unfortunately, those who are willing to cheapen the memory of murdered Jews for political gain — even evoking the memory of the Holocaust in an attempt to defend anti-Semites — do so from a position of both historical ignorance and moral fecklessness. While supposed “opponents” of tyranny, authoritarianism, and intolerance wring their hands while screaming “Never Again” in the faces of their enemies, they are ignoring the brutal fact that China is the Nazi Germany of not only our generation, but of the last half-century.

For months, the Chinese government have reportedly been enacting oppressive policies against its Uyghur Muslim population which have all the hallmarks of The Final Solution. When the BBC’s Andrew Marr confronted China’s UK ambassador with authenticated footage of Uyghur Muslims being blindfolded and led to trains, Liu Xiaoming unconvincingly feigned ignorance and stated that “there is no such concentration camps in Xinjiang.”

It is alleged that up to one million Uyghur Muslims have been forcibly detained by the brutal Chinese communist government in so-called “re-education camps,” where they are subjected to forced labor, indoctrination, and sterilization.

For anyone with the slightest understanding of modern China’s political history, their shameless actions of dehumanization are nothing new. Between 1958 and 1962, Chairman Mao — one of history’s most prolific mass murderers — launched the “Great Leap Forward,” which resulted in tens of millions of deaths through starvation, beatings, torture, or suicide. Introduced in 1979 and remaining in place until 2015, the now infamous “One Child Policy” ushered in decades of appalling human rights violations, including forced abortions, sterilizations, and child abandonment.

Despite this clear and demonstrated history of a complete disregard for the value of human life, China is not viewed as the despicable geopolitical enemy they repeatedly prove themselves to be. They remain one of the five members of the United Nations Security Council, whose charter ironically includes the desire “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.”

Unbelievably, China was even a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2019, alongside other supposedly human rights-promoting regimes such as Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. The ethical worthlessness of the United Nations Human Rights Council can be explained by noting that between June 2006 and June 2016, 68 of its 135 resolutions singled out the Jewish State of Israel for condemnation. Not one of the 135 resolutions criticized China.

If “Never Again” means something, then we cannot remain silent as China openly enacts a regime of tyranny upon its citizens. This begins by acknowledging that the United Nations and its various councils on “security” and “human rights” are meaningless vessels of willful ignorance, and therefore understanding that we, as citizens of free nations, are responsible for standing up for the value of human life.

Those who refuse to condemn China while claiming to abhor the crimes of Nazi Germany are nothing but opportunistic cowards who are simply unwilling to stand up for what is right and fight against what is wrong. “Never Again” is utterly meaningless among those who stand silent now as Uyghur Muslims are left helpless to face a similar fate as Jews under that monstrous regime.

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Ian G. Haworth is a conservative commentator who provides an honest, principled, and hard-hitting insight into our politics and culture from his unique perspective as a British immigrant to the United States. Ian hosts “The Ian Haworth Show” and “The Truth in 60 Seconds.” He is a regular columnist for Townhall.com, and his work has appeared in other outlets including The American Mind, The Washington Examiner, and The Federalist. Ian graduated from Oxford University, and now lives in California. Follow him on Twitter @ighaworth

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