How Shanghai became an inter-war haven for European Jews fleeing persecution

While traces of a Jewish presence in China can be found as early as the Han dynasty, which ended in the third century, the Nationalist government once seriously considered schemes to take in large numbers of Jews amid the turmoil of the interwar years.

In the early 20th century, European politics was ridden with antisemitism, most obviously in Nazi Germany and the murder of 6 million in the Holocaust, but prejudice was widespread across the continent and other countries restricted entry to those trying to flee persecution at home.