Chinese ambassador to Israel compares travel bans to Holocaust

More and more countries are closing their borders to travelers from China amid the coronavirus outbreak, a precaution that one Chinese official in particular has not taken well.
“This is reminiscent of World War II, the Holocaust, the darkest days of human history,” said China’s acting ambassador to Israel, Dai Yuming, at a press conference on Sunday following the country’s decision to deny entry to travelers from China.
“Millions of Jews were murdered and many were banned from entering countries. Only very, very few countries opened their doors, one of them was China,” he continued. “Even in dark times in history, we did not close our gates to the Jewish people and we hope that Israel won’t close its gates to the Chinese.”
It’s worth pointing out that Dai’s grasp of the dark times in history leaves something to be desired.
Around 18,000 Jews from Europe did immigrate to Shanghai in the 1930s and early 1940s, however, at that time, the Chinese government had no say in the matter with Shanghai going from being a treaty port controlled by foreign powers that Jews did not need visas to enter to being occupied by the Japanese.

Historical inaccuracies aside, the Chinese embassy later apologized for the comparison, which comes about a week after the 75 anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

“There was no intention whatsoever to compare the dark days of the Holocaust with the current situation and the efforts taken by the Israeli government to protect its citizens.”
Those efforts include halting direct flights between China and Israel, as well as banning non-Israelis who have visited China in the past two weeks from entering the country. Israeli citizens returning from China have been ordered to self-quarantine at home for two weeks.
Israel is one of a growing number of countries to introduce these kinds of restrictions, joining Russia, the United States, and Australia, among others.

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