Pro-China Engagement Requires Genocide Denial

With July 1, the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party, on the horizon, some people are taking the opportunity to highlight its brutal conduct over the past century. Pro-China apologists in the West, such as British politician Vince Cable, however, are using the moment to defend the world’s most powerful adversary of human freedom.

At the Independent, Cable, who led the U.K.’s Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019, marks the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary with a maliciously ill-informed article downplaying its atrocities against Uyghur Muslims. Basically, for the occasion of the Party’s celebration, he has refitted arguments he made in a February 2021 book advocating engagement with Beijing. Although he writes that “there is little doubt that serious human rights abuses have taken place in Xinjiang,” his piece doesn’t take much stock of them; he instead exonerates Chinese officials of the most serious allegations that have been leveled against them.

About the Author

Jimmy Quinn

Jimmy Quinn is the former national security correspondent for National Review.

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With July 1, the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party, on the horizon, some people are taking the opportunity to highlight its brutal conduct over the past century. Pro-China apologists in the West, such as British politician Vince Cable, however, are using the moment to defend the world’s most powerful adversary of human freedom.

At the Independent, Cable, who led the U.K.’s Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019, marks the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary with a maliciously ill-informed article downplaying its atrocities against Uyghur Muslims. Basically, for the occasion of the Party’s celebration, he has refitted arguments he made in a February 2021 book advocating engagement with Beijing. Although he writes that “there is little doubt that serious human rights abuses have taken place in Xinjiang,” his piece doesn’t take much stock of them; he instead exonerates Chinese officials of the most serious allegations that have been leveled against them.