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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 15, 2025

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And there was no pre-WWII history of anti-Jewish pogroms, expulsions, or legal discrimination against Jews in China

This is not entirely correct. For sure, generally Jews were treated well in China (eg in Harbin they only were harassed by local Russian fascists, somewhat humorously not by the Nazi-aligned Japanese who sought to resettle them in Japan, on grounds of taking Protocols of the Elders of Zion at face value and anticipating high ROI from alignment with the Jewish people). But Kaifeng Jews were at the very least forced to assimilate, and probably abandon endogamy.

Of course, China is so vast and has seen so many different peoples that all of that is a complete nothingburger in their national consciousness. Anecdotally, I have the impression that they thought well of Jews (even of negative stereotypes), assuming that this is NGMI whining of whites who complain of Chinese shrewdness and intelligence in the same manner. Chinese themselves experience relationships somewhat similar to Medieval Jewish-Gentile ones across the broader Sinosphere, eg in Malaysia where they are the educated, clannish middleman minority with financial assets but without hard power. Politically, the PRC is consistently pro-Palestinian but it doesn't have much of an actionable component or popular purchase, and the Israel Question is folded into the broader competition with America, often with this lazy Marxist spin about Israel as the bulwark of global imperialism for those who want an ideological case against he US.

On the other hand I've been told by Mainlanders that China got really redpilled on the JQ after the reports of starvation in Gaza. They take starvation extremely seriously, and then pattern-matched the whole post-Oct 7 dynamic onto Japanese occupation. That may color perceptions going forward.