How much does sth have to “resemble the Holocaust” for ppl to take it seriously as a genocide? asked @SamanthaJPower. i looked into this question wrt to Uyghurs, amid a surge in expressions of concern and Holocaust comparisons by Jewish communities qz.com/1892791/a-cons…
among those who were outspoken on the abuses against Uyghurs in the Jewish community or invoked Holocaust comparisons: @BoardofDeputies, @rabbisacks, @GilTaieb, while @RianThum highlighted the importance of @JewishNewsUK putting the Xinjiang hair seizure story on their frontpage
according to @j_smithfinley, what really moved the needle on using the word “genocide” was the timing of the @AP forced sterilisations story and then the hair seizures. on top of that, the train video geolocated by @Nrg8000 went viral. @AuschwitzMuseum alluded to it in a tweet.
the train video became part of the broader UK-China spat after the Chinese ambassador was grilled about it by @AndrewMarr9. i detailed the rapidly growing interest in Xinjiang in the UK in this thread partly as a result of that exchange
lawyer @philippesands has written abt the importance of not getting bogged down in definitions lest it stop ppl from focusing on the response. Peter Irwin of @UyghurProject: “The intl community has an obligation to respond, irrespective of whatever label one might want to apply”
while @RayhanAsat acknowledged the difficultly of getting countries to adopt the G-word. “once they do they have to act on it.” the US in Rwanda is one historical example, tho she said it seems that a sort of a Western consensus on the genocide definition is starting to form.
and this is what Hannah Arendt had to say about the point or lack thereof of Holocaust comparisons (h/t @maryhui)
thank you to @JAFU709 for their help and diligent work collecting Jewish responses from around the world to the Uyghur issue, which has spread steadily from UK Jewry now to the US and beyond
"Mike Pompeo has been unwilling to declare the Rohingyas’ case a genocide...Pompeo worries that leveling a genocide accusation against Myanmar could lead its government to tighten its embrace of China" politico.com/news/2020/08/2…
"Genocide is a very serious crime," says gbl tms, and "whatabout whatabout whatabout whatabout" globaltimes.cn/content/119897…
Taiwan's "Chinese Wild Bird Federation" forced out of UK-HQed conservation org BirdLife International bc...yup bird.org.tw/news/585
The Telegraph contacted BirdLife International for comment, but it said it would be “inappropriate for us to comment publically on matters relating to, and interactions with, partner organisations”. telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/1…
if you do a search for "Taiwan" on the BirdLife website and try to access the bio page for the "Chinese Taiwan" page, well you can't
the petition calling for the UK to sanction China over Xinjiang has over 100k signatures, now parliament must debate it. 2 days ago it had ~ 50k signatures. it's been wild watching the way the issue has taken off in the UK in just the last few *days* petition.parliament.uk/petitions/3001…
a selection of the major news reports on Xinjiang Uyghurs in UK media that may have contributed to the explosion in interest in the issue. @lindseyhilsum@Channel4News reported on forced labour a few days ago based on @CodaStory story channel4.com/news/uyghurs-b…
Nat sec law on frontpage of Japan's Sankei newspaper, black box at the top says "HK is dead." article describes "invisible tanks" rolling into HK on June 30; "HK was a place where ppl who were submerged underwater in China could come up for air." sankei.com/world/news/200…
meanwhile, Nikkei has a explainer on why HK is important to Japan. over 25k of its natls live in HK, and over 1413 JP companies are based in HK, 2nd only to mainland CH companies. Agri exports to HK is the highest in the region. nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO…
Mainichi, which (like other mainstream papers) also splashed HK nat sec law on the frontpage, says in an opinion that HK cannot keep its status as a global financial centre without a free market mainichi.jp/articles/20200…
on news that China has revoked the journalist visas of 3 WSJ reporters, Tlobal Gimes earlier said that the WSJ had given the explanation re "sick man of Asia" op-ed that the editorial page and news side are separately run - which i presume is not good enough for Beijing
the original author of the 'racist' op-ed in question was @wrmead
my thread today for the solidarity with uyghurs rally in hk
organisers kick off by giving an overview of the kinds of oppression facing Uyghurs: surveillance, restrictions on worship and their way of life eg forced to eat non-halal foods
note that the organisers have used the term east turkestan rather than xinjiang