In the 1940’s a nation attacked a sovereign state then occupied and annexed its territory. That would be the Chinese.
At Forbes, Gordon Chang discusses the history of the Uighurs. These two paragraphs were especially enlightening..( via Instapundit) :
The Uighurs are a conquered people. In the 1940s, they had their own state, the East Turkestan Republic, for about half a decade. Mao Zedong, however, forcibly incorporated the short-lived nation into the People’s Republic by sending the People’s Liberation Army into Xinjiang.
As much as the Uighurs deserve to govern themselves again–and they most certainly do–almost no one thinks they will be able to resurrect the East Turkestan state. They have even lost their own homeland, as Beijing’s policies encouraged the Han to populate Xinjiang. In the 1940s, Hans constituted about 5% of Xinjiang’s population. Today, that number has increased to about 40%. In the capital of Urumqi, more than 70% of the residents are Hans. In short, the Uighurs are no match for the seemingly invincible Han-dominated state.
For all the talk about how Israel violates the Fourth Geneva Convention with its “settlements, it’s remarkable that the Chinese clearly violated elements of the convention but it doesn’t even warrant a second thought in diplomatic circles. In order to say that Israel violates the convention one must ignore that the territory they captured in 1967 was already illegally occupied by Jordan. It also ignores that areas like the Etzion Bloc and Hebron were emptied of their Jewish populations by force.
But clearly the Chinese invaded and occupied a formerly sovereign state. Moreover this is from Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that is often cited as a reason that Israeli “settlements” are illegal:
The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.
Chang tells us that in order to complete the annexation of Uighur territory, the Chinese moved the Han into Xinjiang. This is the action that was meant to be prohibited by the convention, but the Chinese – unencumbered by any opposition – moved the Han population into Xinjiang in order to squelch any aspirations to independence by the Uighurs. But for some reason, international law experts are silent about this blatant violation of the law.
This selective application of the convention is one more illustration of how international law is applied only to one country. The hypocrisy is astounding.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
what about the American friends in Turkey, attacking the republic of Cyprus a very civilized and friendly country with British bases on their land and took a good part to put in the 12% Turkish population who were living with Cypriots been treated equally.
3 decisions of the United Nation for the Turks to get out of Cyprus never worked.
They are still there and now they will call the occupied North: TURKISH REPUBLIC.
W H Y? Talk about China what they do in their land.
It’s ridiculous how the “experts” ignore the simple “conquer and spoil” of all the countries in the entire world, and stick the finger against the return of the jews to our historical home. China (the worse, I think), Russia, Morocco, Iran, Turkey, Sudan, Syria, Iraq… All these countries conquered someone, ethnic cleansed their countries, and even today opress minorities, force conversions (even for atheism to the 80’s, in the case of the communists), murder members of the opposition (real or perceived as), after the so called treaties, and the “World Police” don’t move a finger to do something.
No, I don’t really cares that the world don’t move a finger. Do something only if this is good for you directly or indirectly, do nothing if this is irrelevant. Is my way of thinking.
But, use the same criteria for all! What good westerns receive from supporting by Media, and often by politics, the terrorists who today attack Israel, and tomorrow attack the West? Well… I think not tomorrow, but really since some decades. 9/11 was not only one day, and not even the beginning, but just one more phase in their war against the non-muslims. (and muslims of other sects too! oO) They received a response for this, and then calmed down (a little), but they are more and more aggressive again, and they will restart all that one more time if they sense the West is weak. And any other non-muslim country, including Russia, India and even the East, is too on the target, remember the terrorists strikes against India, or the problems in Thailand and her neighbors.
Mark my words!
Shalom!
Lucas Emanuel