the marginalized groups in the 1940s examples weren't popular anywhere, until stumbling upon the true nature of the camps for other reasons and liberation, so I see some parallels here
Look at Venezuela. It’s starving its own people for political reasons, they have some oil, but we could survive without it... do you think we’re gonna go down there and do anything about it? Nope!
You sound like you think that we aren't going to do anything because we just don't care, or at least don't care enough. But "doing anything about it" in Venezuela would mean an invasion. It would mean killing a bunch of people in the name of helping people. (Granted, at least some of those killed would be part of the problem. Still, killing people to help people has a pretty bad track record and a very moral foundation.)
In China, it would mean all-out war with a near-peer nation, which would probably result in nuclear war. While what China is doing is horrible, nobody wants to stop them at that price, and not because we don't care enough.
Why would we (the US, Nato?) do anything about that? Compared to Colombia, Guyana, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Panama etc
I just want to read the articulate logic
Seems like political and economic isolation for China might be effective, but who wants to do that when they offer the world cheap labor and manufacturing?
I think so, but only because I think governments know how little "us commoners" actually care, beyond wanting to virtue signal and wanting to see politicians raise a stink about things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13769#/media/F...
This Muslim ban came before the immigrant camps and migrant child detention centers, which Pence also supported. If we don't hold him accountable for hypocrisy, then who will?
Of course, he's not, though.
So I except nobody will do anything that has any impact.
NATO intervened to stop the war crimes in the Yugoslav civil war mostly because it was right on the doorstep to Western Europe. Other Arab countries had already intervened years earlier with some people/weapons since the arms embargo had to some extent disproportionately affected the Muslim populations (one common thread with this gulag). This aid /intervention was only possible due to the geographic circumstances of the former Yugoslavia - no outside forces are going to step into China, and stuff like the Opium Wars/forced open doors afterwards means very few in China want foreigners to come in and help.
Let's think about an individual/NGO-style boycott where you encourage a billion people to boycott Chinese goods. Could you even boycott Chinese goods? What phone would you buy? What computer? Even if the place of final assembly isn't China, what percentage of the parts would be Chinese?
If we're talking about countries doing something, it's hard to look past the huge economic ties in place. We'd be talking about really a drop in the S&P 500 that would make every recession look tiny. Apple needs China for iPhones, Amazon needs China for goods for its retail operation and server components (as well as Microsoft, Google, etc.), Huawei powers most of Europe's mobile infrastructure, Volvo is the largest company in Sweden and Chinese owned, Foreign Direct Investment from the US to China topped $100B in 2017... Would the US or EU take such a huge hit to their economy for the Uighurs?
As you noted, the Allies didn't come for the Jews. They came to contain a Germany that was taking over Europe. The Soviet Union was content to let Germany do as it pleased until it was attacked itself. The UK and France tried appeasing the Nazis while they took over Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Memelland. The US didn't join the war in Europe until Germany declared war against the US.
If China doesn't attack Taiwan, Japan, or India, I can't see us doing anything. Tibet happened and while we might have had some strong words about Tibet, we haven't done anything about it.
Plus, to be honest, it's hard to see us doing a lot when the right-wing in Europe and the US has started replacing Jews as their go-to "it's their fault" target with Muslims. Hatred is a terrible thing, but there has been growing anti-Muslim sentiment. While that doesn't rule out saving people, I think it does make it less likely.
This isn't meant to say that we shouldn't do anything. It's more that I don't think we (collectively, governmentally) have the will to do something given the huge economic ties in play.
Russia might provide some clues, but it's also important to remember that our economic ties with Russia are a lot simpler: Russia has natural resources. While we have applied some sanctions, Russia is still in Ukraine. Given the level of our reliance on China, I can't imagine we will bring might strong enough for China to really change.
I would love for someone to change my mind on this comment. I really hope this comment is just totally wrong.
edit: we had stories rallying for the workers protesting Google making software for the Chinese, why not rally against any manufacturer making product there? The tech sector is a place where it can bring pressure
The big problem: it involves the world's consumers willingly punching themselves in the face at the same time. It might even throw the global economy into a deep recession and as a consequence kill a lot more people than the gulags are likely to. There are a lot of fallout problems in dealing with China, not least because they've historically shown a willingness to distribute any necessary pain upon their people to achieve party goals. There'd also have to be an elaborate verification program put in place, so China wouldn't continue their agenda in a more subtle manner; I don't see that sort of invasive foreign observation ever being allowed.
They've made a very conscious choice to eliminate the Uighur culture, as they did with Tibet before it. They have an end goal in mind, it's hard to imagine stopping them without upping the risks very high. Frankly I'm skeptical there is any way to stop them, I think they'd just take the pain and make it an us vs them conflict to convince the domestic population to absorb it (insert slogans here to drive loyalty during the great fight against the imperialists).
This isn't the last gulag of the CCP. We would never know how many future atrocities were prevented with proper diplomatic and economic sanctions against them.
Given that both our politicians and corporations are content with helping China cover this up at best, or are complicit in identification and imprisonment of the Uyghurs at worst, I don't know.
Perhaps if China invaded Taiwan or enabled NK in an attack on South Korea, it would wake Western interests up.