Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

EXCITING RIDES IN CHINESE AMUSEMENT PARKS! - VIDEO

Amusement parks in China have some exciting rides.   MUCH TOO EXCITING for me!    HT:JS

WILL THE U.S. CONGRESS INCREASE ITS MILITARY SPENDING TO WARD OFF CHINESE POWER IN THE PACIFIC?

Jim Talent has produced a sobering (and indeed eye-opening) account of Chinese designs complete with graphs showing how American military power has radically diminished in comparison to the Chinese.  Talent's article offers a major survey of what America is up against at this very moment.  No wonder there were so many photos of President Xi Jinping smiling when he met with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago.  

Talent writes:

I have written before about the growth of China’s military power and the decline of American strength because of the defense cuts in recent years. Here is a graphic illustration, compiled from open sources, of how that shift in power is affecting the Pacific theater:

CHINA'S LOVE OF MUSIC AND CHRISTIAN FAITH

 

CBN'S George Thomas: Transcript

BEIJING -- China loves music. A new survey shows hundreds of millions listen to it on a regular basis. Now a small, but growing number of Chinese Christians are tapping into that market with a genre of music they hope will impact the world's most populous nation. 

Xu Chi is part of that movement. Xu was a rock singer for 20 years. 

He performed in nightclubs and other venues around China. But the fame and wealth, he says, did nothing to quench the emptiness he felt inside.

"It took me sometime to admit it, but the pleasure was temporary. It did not reach down into my soul," Xu told CBN News.

From Rock to the Gospel

Xu said that all changed in a single moment and transformed his singing career.

ANASTASIA LIN - A TRUE BEAUTY

Jay Nordlinger writes in a short article the following about Anastasia Lin - 

Anastasia Lin is an extraordinary beauty queen. She is also an actress. And a human-rights advocate.

Last year, she was crowned Miss World Canada. But the international competition was held in China — and the dictatorship blocked her from coming. They declared her “persona non grata.”

She earned that designation from these monsters: She has spoken out against their crimes — their persecution, their killing, their organ-harvesting — and has acted in films depicting those crimes.

After she was crowned Miss World Canada, her father, who still lives in China, was subjected to terrible pressure. Evil is the regime that breaks up families, or tries to. Evil is the regime that holds a population in the grip of lies, and tries to smash any truth-teller.

At the Oslo Freedom Forum, I recorded a Q&A with Anastasia Lin. For that podcast, go here.  She has profound things to say about, among other subjects, the West’s constant appeasement of the Chinese Communist Party.

Do we have to be complicit in the CCP’s crimes? No. It’s that we choose to.

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY JAILING CHRISTIAN HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS

Some Christian lawyers are simply disappearing!   Full story here.   

Update 9/4/15:  

Timothy C. Morgan, writing for Christianity Today magazine titled his article,  "Leading Lawyer Defending Crosses in 'China's Jerusalem' Jailed Before Meeting US Ambassador."  Morgan writes:

China has arrested the leader of “Lawyers for Protection of the Cross.” The group defends churches whose crosses have been forcibly removed amid a government campaign to strip skylines of Christian symbols.

Zhang Kai is the latest of more than 250 attorneys, pastors, and human rights activists detained or arrested since July in connection with the 400 to 1,200 crossremovals in the eastern province of Zhejiang, a Christian stronghold.

On August 25, police in Wenzhou, a coastal city known as “China’s Jerusalem,” jumped a wall at Xialing Church and arrested Zhang Kai and his intern, Liu Peng. The arrests occurred on the eve of a scheduled meeting with David Saperstein, the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

“These detentions fit into the disturbing pattern of state intimidation of public-interest lawyers, internet activists, journalists, [and] religious leaders,” Saperstein said to news media. “Other people that I have met, or tried to, have suffered harassment of some kind. [The US government] demands the immediate release of these activists, who boldly underline the precariousness of religious life in China.”

According to China Aid, Zhang and Liu are being held for six months in a so-called “black jail,” one of several detention facilities outside the established penal system. Torture is common in such centers, where prisoners may be held without trial, China Aid said.

CURRENT CHINESE CRACKDOWN ON RELIGION THE MOST SEVERE SINCE THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

I have great respect for Dr. Bob Fu, the president and founder of  China Aid, a watchdog organization monitoring religious freedom in China.  On July 24,  Fu testified before Congress

Others that spoke at the hearing, led by Congressmen Chris Smith, (R-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), included Anastasia Lin, actress, human rights advocate and Miss World Canada 2015; Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress; and Losang Gyatso, service chief of Voice of America’s Tibetan service.

Fu’s full testimony, and the testimony of the other witnesses, along with a video of the hearing can be found here.   Bob Fu began his testimony this way:  [my emphases]

This is the third year of President Xi Jinping’s Administration in China, whose policies and actions have raised alarm, and in some cases astonished the international community. Domestically, Xi has purged his political rivals through a “selective anti-corruption campaign” and monopolized power within the leadership of the Communist party, the government and the military. In foreign policy, Xi has adopted a dangerous and aggressive agenda, challenging existing international law and creating his own when deemed necessary, including the national security law, which is being viewed by may as a pretext for human rights abuses. This antagonistic and arrogant approach to governance over the past two and half years has earned Xi the nickname “Chairman Mao Junior” and “Xi-tler.”

In the past two years, human rights and rule of law in China have rapidly deteriorated. The number of dissidents taken into police custody, arrested and convicted since Xi took power has exceeded the total number that occurred during the 10-year reign of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Chinese citizens who peacefully criticize the government or defend the rights of citizens; lawyers who dare to represent “sensitive cases” without cooperating with the government; and activists who assemble in a peaceful manner, attempt to request the government’s permission to establish a nongovernmental organization (NGO), or peacefully protest against government policies or judicial injustices are subsequently “invited to drink tea,” summoned for interrogation, detained or arrested, and eventually tried in a corrupt judicial system. To be sure, the Chinese government has intensified its harassment of NGOs, civil society organizations, law firms representing human rights cases, charitable organizations, and political organizations such as the “New Citizen Movement.”

During the Xi Administration, and particularly in the past 18 months, religious freedom abuses have reached a level not seen since the Cultural Revolution. Not only have house churches continued to experience intensifying persecution, but now “Three-Self” churches, that is, government-sanctioned churches are being subjected to government-sponsored persecution campaigns. The Chinese government’s persecution of Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong practitioners has also worsened. The Chinese government perceives religious practitioners as being guided by “foreign influence” and has subsequently pursued absolute control over religious communities.

QUICK TAKES

Daniel Greenfield - The Internalized Racism of White Leftists

Walter Williams - Culture and Social Pathology

Cal Thomas - China's Big Hack Attack

Raymond Ibrahim - Islam's Jihad on Churches

David French - S.C. Suspect Caught and the Politicization begins  (* Especially important)

            Question - Was Dylann Storm Roof taking anti-depressant drugs?  Update: Apparently YES!

PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IN CHINA HAS REACHED ALL TIME HIGH

Angie Chui writes in the UK publication Christian Today:

 T
he persecution of Christians has reached an all time high in China and the government is contributing to the suffering of the faithful, according to the 2014 annual report released last week by Christian human rights organisation China Aid.

Based on the report, there were 572 documented cases of persecution against individuals from different religions last year compared to 143 cases in 2013, equating to a 300 per cent increase.

The report told of government sanctioned modifications or demolitions of Christian property under the guise of eradicating illegal structures.

"The increase in government-sanctioned persecution against religious practitioners and human rights lawyers and advocates reflects the overall political transformation that is occurring within the Communist Party in China (CPC), namely an orchestrated effort to consolidate power and suppress dissent and any perceived threats to the Chinese government, including the growth of religion in China," China Aid stated.

As for the number of religious practitioners who suffered from abuse, 17,884 reported being persecuted in 2014 compared to the previous year's 7,424. The number of persecuted church leaders also rose to 2,682, compared to 800 in 2013.

Based on the statistics, one of the most alarming changes reported was the huge increase in the number of 'dissidents' sentenced by the government, from just 12 people in 2013, to a total of 1,274 individuals in 2014.

THOUSANDS PROTEST RELIGIOUS FREEDOM LAW IN INDIANA

Update 3/30/15  - Rush Limbaugh weighs in on Religious Freedom and the state of Indiana 

- The Family Research Council declares "Today We Are All Hoosiers" and asks people to sign a petition in support of Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

- David French at National Review Online offers an experienced perspective: 

After litigating religious liberty issues for more than 20 years, I’m used to utter hysteria erupting on the Left when Christians try to assert conventional and traditional religious liberty rights. . . 

So what’s really going on here? A toxic combination of anti-Christian bigotry and sexual revolution radicalism. It is simply uninformed and bigoted to believe that Christians are somehow lurking in the shadows, ready to deny food, shelter, and basic services to their gay fellow citizens — blocked from such vicious actions only by the strong arm of the state. In my entire life as an Evangelical, I’ve never met a fellow Christian who wouldn’t gladly serve a gay customer. If there are exceptions to that nearly-universal rule, they are so marginal (and marginalized) in the Christian community that they’re irrelevant not only to Christendom but also to the body politic.

But the Left, ever-vigilant against group-based slights on behalf of favored constituencies, is only too eager to label orthodox Christians as threats to the public. This bigotry has a purpose. It serves to demonize the last significant constituency standing in the way of sexual revolution radicalism. After all, unless you demonize your opposition, the general public will have little appetite for forcing Christians to pay for abortion pills, forcing Christian groups to open up to atheist leadership, or forcing Christian bakers or photographers to help celebrate events they find morally offensive. After all, there’s no clamor for requiring Kosher delis to stock pork or requiring gay lawyers to represent the Westboro Baptist Church. While RFRAs protect people of all faiths, from peyote-smoking Native Americans to Bible-toting florists, the Left’s outrage is narrowly targeted — against the Christian people whose livelihoods they seek to ruin, whose consciences they seek to appropriate, and whose organizations they seek to disrupt. #BoycottIndiana isn’t a cry for freedom. It’s nothing more than an online mob, seeking to bully those it hates.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/416176/want-evidence-hysterical-anti-christian-bigotry-look-no-further-boycottindiana-david

Update 3/29/15 - Indiana Governor Mike Pence appeared on ABC's "This Week" - 

AMERICAN EMPIRE DYING... CHINA RISING

Sam Ro at Business Insider reports:  "America Is On The Verge Of Losing Its Place In The World As No. 1" (HT: Drudge)

 

The U.S. economy is the largest economy in the world.

 But it wasn't always the largest.

And it's unlikely to remain the largest economy for much longer.

The chart above comes to us via Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid.

"As Alexander, Rome and Britain fell from their positions of absolute global dominance, so too has the US begun to slip," Reid writes in a new note to clients. "America’s global economic dominance has been declining since 1998, well before the Global Financial Crisis. A large part of this decline has actually had little to do with the actions of the US but rather with the unraveling of a century’s long economic anomaly. China has begun to return to the position in the global economy it occupied for millennia before the industrial revolution."

One look at the chart and it's pretty clear that it may not be very long before we start saying the U.S. is No. 2.

"Based on current trends China’s economy will overtake America’s in purchasing power terms within the next few years," Reid continued. "The US is now no longer the world’s sole economic superpower and indeed its share of world output (on a PPP basis) has slipped below the 20% level which we have seen was a useful sign historically of a single dominant economic superpower. In economic terms we already live in a bi-polar world. Between them the US and China today control over a third of world output (on a PPP basis)."

Reid offered this prescient quote from Napoleon Bonaparte: "Let China sleep, for when she awakes, she will shake the world."

THE U.S. MUST AWAKEN TO CHINA'S MUSCLE FLEXING IN ASIA TO PROTECT NATIONS AND INSURE TRANQUILITY

Jim Talent writes, "The U.S. Giant Slumbers:  The U.S. could check China, but our leaders need to wake up to the threat."

The leaders of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) want China to achieve hegemonic control over East Asia extending at least throughout the East and South China Seas. They have claimed sovereignty over those waters and the islands they contain, and they are developing the means to enforce their claims by a massive military buildup that is shifting the balance of hard power in the western Pacific. I wrote yesterday on the features of that buildup and in particular on how it is strategically designed to exploit the vulnerabilities in America’s military posture.

The CCP has three prime reasons for seeking hegemony:   [Read more...]

PETER BURGER - "IS THE CHINESE REGIME CHANGING ITS POLICY TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY?"

Famed sociologist of religion Peter Berger reflects on the widely-reported government demolition of a prominent church in the Southeast city of Wenzhou and reads the tea leaves.  His article is must reading for followers of Christianity in China.

UK TELEGRAPH - "CHINA ON COURSE TO BECOME 'WORLD'S MOST CHRISTIAN NATION' WITHIN 15 YEARS"

I found this article to be a fair, balanced, informative assessment of Christian faith and its growth in China.  

. . .  "By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.

"It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."

China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.

By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.

-- Read on for much more, including mention of underground house churches,  government concerns, and future prospects.

CHRISTIANS FORM HUMAN SHIELD AROUND CHINESE CHURCH TO PROTECT FROM BULLDOZERS...

Tom Phillips of the UK Telegraph reports from Wenzhou, China:  (HT: Drudge)

Thousands of Chinese Christians have mounted an extraordinary, round-the-clock defence of a church in a city known as the 'Jerusalem of the East' after Communist Party officials threatened to bulldoze their place of worship.

In an episode that underlines the fierce and long-standing friction between China's officially atheist Communist Party and its rapidly growing Christian congregation, Bible-carrying believers this week flocked to the Sanjiang church in Wenzhou hoping to protect it from the bulldozers.

Their 24-hour guard began earlier this week when a demolition notice was plastered onto the newly-constructed church which worshippers say cost around 30 million yuan (£2.91 million) and almost six years to build. . .    (Read more . . .) 

QUICK TAKES

--  New Egyptian constitution gives greater freedom to Christians  (Ht: Mere Comments)

New Egyptian constitution gives greater freedom to Christians - See more at: http://touchstonemag.com/merecomments/#sthash.TAMyecCs.dpuf

New Egyptian constitution gives greater freedom to Christians - See more at: http://touchstonemag.com/merecomments/#sthash.TAMyecCs.dpuf

--  Biblical Archaeology's Top Ten Discoveries of 2013

--  Iran Steps Up Its Campaign Against Christians (Current!)

-- Interesting statistics of Bible verses shared over the internet  (You'll find this infographic interesting!)

--  Israeli soldiers warned against contact with Messianic Jews  (Appeasing the ultra-Orthodox)

-- China's navy and air power rapidly rising to  eventually control Western Pacific  (Very sobering analysis of U.S. decline)

- - World Magazine's Top 25 articles for 2013 (Articles that generated the most reader traffic on World's website - really interesting!)

CHINESE REFUGEE CHEN GUANGCHENG AND SPINELESS NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

From the editors at the National Review:

Not since the Olsen twins had something so big hit New York University. In May of last year, Chen Guangcheng arrived there from China. Now he is being asked to leave, and the question is, “Why?” Is it merely because his fellowship has expired? Or is he being forced out, because the university wishes to please Beijing?

Chen, recall, is the “blind peasant lawyer” who is one of the bravest people in the world. He blew the whistle on China’s forced abortions and sterilizations. He endured four and a half years in prison, being subjected to the usual horrors the state visits upon its political prisoners. Then there was a year and a half of house arrest, which included equal horrors. Last year, Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, escaped to the U.S. embassy. After about a month of negotiations, they were allowed to fly to America.

Chen’s main patron was Jerome A. Cohen, a veteran China scholar and law professor at NYU. The university was undoubtedly good to take Chen in. At the same time, the university got something out of the deal too: A genuine world hero was in its midst. Now there has been a bitter split.

CHINA PLANS TO WIPE OUT HOUSE CHURCHES

Jonathan Saruk reports for Morningstar News:

Government sponsored persecution rose 42 percent in 2012

China's Christians felt a noticeable rise in persecution in 2012 as the Communist government began the first of a three-phase plan to eradicate unregistered house churches, a new report says.

Incidents of persecution of Christians rose by about 42 percent last year compared with 2011, according to the report by human rights group China Aid. Many of these incidents involved groups of Christians. In total, the number of individual persecuted Christians rose by roughly 14 percent and total individual detentions increased by nearly 12 percent. China Aid said overall total persecution in six categories was about 13 percent worse than in 2011-though China Aid termed its statistics just "the tip of the iceberg."

At least 132 incidents of persecution affecting 4,919 Christians-442 of whom were clergy-were reported in the country last year, according to China Aid's annual report. The Texas-based group tracked detention of at least 1,441 Christians, the sentencing of nine of them, and the abuse (verbal, mental and physical, including beatings and torture) of 37 Christians.

Beijing, administered directly under the central government, witnessed the highest number of persecution cases, at 62, affecting 934 Christians; Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China followed with at 11 cases involving 382 Christians. Persecution was also high in central China-comprising Henan and Hubei Hunan provinces-where 1,056 Christians were affected, and in east China, which includes Shandong, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces, which witnessed harassment of 750 Christians.

The report also notes that persecution last year was 61 percent worse than in 2010; 85 percent worse than in 2009; 120 percent worse than in 2008; 308 percent worse than in 2007; and 372 percent worse than in 2006.

CHINESE CONSUMERS: MODERN IN THEIR TASTE, BUT NOT BECOMING "WESTERN"

Tom Doctoroff writes in the Wall Street Journal:

(...) But don't be deceived by appearances. Consumers in China aren't becoming "Western." They are increasingly modern and international, but they remain distinctly Chinese. . . .  

Understanding China's consumer culture is a good starting point for understanding the nation itself, as it races toward superpower status. Though the country's economy and society are evolving rapidly, the underlying cultural blueprint has remained more or less constant for thousands of years. China is a Confucian society, a quixotic combination of top-down patriarchy and bottom-up social mobility. Citizens are driven by an ever-present conflict between standing out and fitting in, between ambition and regimentation. In Chinese society, individuals have no identity apart from obligations to, and acknowledgment by, others. The clan and nation are the eternal pillars of identity. Western individualism—the idea of defining oneself independent of society—doesn't exist. . . .

Read it all.  I found it informative.

WILL OBAMA STAND UP TO CHINA ON BEHALF OF CHEN?

President Obama gloats over killing Osama bin Ladin.  Now comes a real test.  Will he stand up to China on behalf of blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng?  He wants to meet with Secretary Hillary Clinton who is now in China.  The Financial Times reports:  (HT: Drudge)

The fate of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng was injected into the US presidential election on Thursday after Republican challenger Mitt Romney described the incident as “a day of shame for the Obama administration”.

Mr Romney joined a series of Republican lawmakers who piled criticism on the Obama administration after an agreement to allow Mr Chen to remain in the country appeared to collapse.

The Obama administration was forced into damage limitation after Mr Chen said he had changed his mind and now wanted to leave China, one day after the state department announced a deal with the Chinese authorities to allow him to reunite with his family and attend law school.

In a telephone interview with the FT, Mr Chen said that he wanted to leave on the same aircraft as Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, who is in Beijing for an annual economic and security summit.

Mr Chen, a 40-year-old self-taught lawyer, took refuge in the US embassy last week after making a dramatic escape from house arrest in a rural area 300 miles from the capital.

Mr Romney said that it appeared US officials had “sped up” Mr Chen’s departure from the US embassy in Beijing because of the summit meeting being attended by Mrs Clinton and had not put in place measures to assure Mr Chen’s safety once he left the embassy.

“If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom,” he said.  . . . 

The administration also came under intense criticism from Republican lawmakers and some human rights groups at a specially called congressional hearing on the case. Christopher Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey, said that the administration had “dropped the ball significantly” and that it would be “scandalous” if the US did not do everything it could to protect Mr Chen.

Bob Fu, who runs ChinaAid, a Texas-based Christian group that has worked extensively on human rights issues, added to the pressure on the administration. “Secretary Clinton, this is the moment to deliver on what you promised over the last few years,” he told the hearing. . . . [more...]

Me:  Now, it seems to me, is a test of the importance President Obama places on freedom and human rights.    Is anyone brimming with confidence?

CHINA PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IN CHINA INCREASED DRAMATICALLY IN 2011

China Aid reports that in 2011, the number of Christians detained for their religious beliefs had soared 131.8% from 2010.

A new government practice last year was targeting churches and individuals who were significantly impacting society, like Beijing’s Shouwang Church and leading legal activists such as constitutional law expert Dr. Fan Yafeng, who has been under house arrest since December 2010, and award-winning human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who disappeared into official custody for 20 months before being sent to a remote prison in far western China in December 2011 to serve a three-year sentence.

The report also highlighted the worrying increase in the use of torture against detainees, citing a 33.3% increase over 2010 in the number of cases of abuse of all kinds, including torture.

JEREMY LIN, NBA BASKETBALL STAR OUT OF NOWHERE, SAYS FAITH IN GOD HIS SUPPORT

Update 2/17/12 - Here's a great interview with Lin's pastor, Stephen Cheng, who has known Lin since he was 13.  The interview is titled, "Faith, Sin, and Jeremy Lin."

(Original post) - I don't much follow professional basketball, but after hearing about Jeremy Lin's incredible playing ability, I think the world (and I) will be watching more of the New York Knicks in the same way we began watching the Denver Broncos because of Tim Tebow.  The two have a lot in common, including their Christian faith. 

From NBC Bay Area TV:

The Palo Alto native whose success with the New York Knicks over the last week has catapulted him to international acclaim credits his Christian faith with carrying him to where he is today, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

A faith in God, kindled at Chinese Church in Christ in Mountain View, has carried Lin through the NBA's Development League, to three teams just this season alone, through his bench-warming days when he slept on couches because his contract wasn't guaranteed, to today, when his jersey is the NBA's best-seller and when folks in Taiwan and China stay up late to watch Knicks broadcasts.

"I've surrendered [needing to prove himself] to God," he told the newspaper. "I'm not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore."

Lin was known to study the Bible and hang out with his family following high school games on Friday nights. He confided in his pastor after being waived by the Warriors and then the Rockets, home in the Bay Area at Christmas this year instead of on an NBA roster.

He repeated a Bible verse to himself: And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose. — Romans 8:28.

Here's an example of Lin's prowess:

And watch this next brief video.  Have you ever seen anyone more cool under pressure? 

 

Lin is the first Asian-American in the NBA since 1947 and his success fuels pride not only in the Asian-American community, but also overseas in Taiwan and China as well.  I find that news spectacular and wonderful.

Lin’s stunning success with the Knicks over the last week and a half has captured the imagination of the Chinese, from Communist Party bosses to the often-persecuted Christian minority. He has been particularly popular here in northern Zhejiang province, from which his maternal grandmother fled to Taiwan in the last days of China’s civil war in the late 1940s.

Lin is commonly described in the United States as Taiwanese-American because his parents grew up in Taiwan before moving to the United States, where Lin was born. But mainland China is already starting to claim him as its own, part of an incessant rivalry across the Taiwan Strait.

CHINESE COMMUNIST PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS INTENSIFIED IN 2011

From "China Aid," a top organization monitoring religious persecution in China, comes this summary statement of conditions in Communist China in 2011:

2011 can be regarded as China’s “year of political and religious persecution” or “year of Beijing terrorism.”  Last year saw the revival of extreme leftist ideology and a severe deterioration of the rule of law, bringing with it not only the most severe deterioration in political and religious freedom for the Chinese people since the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution and the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, but also blatant human rights violations and a worrying economic crisis.  Because of the Arab Spring Jasmine Revolution in 2011, a systematic crackdown on churches and prominent Christians that was launched in the second half of 2010 was extended and lasted for the whole of 2011.

China Aid just published the Top 10 Cases of Persecution of churches and Christians in China.

ChinaAid’s selection of the top 10 persecution cases for 2011 is based on the severity, impact and significance of each incidence of persecution and is a highly representative list.  These cases occurred in different parts of China and involved both urban and rural house churches, as well as “Three-Self” churches and Catholic churches.  The victims included pastors, human rights lawyers, political dissidents and artists.

Heading the list is the story of Beijing Showang Church:
 

1.    Beijing Shouwang Church―nonstop persecution throughout the year

In 2011, Beijing Shouwang Church, a well-known house church in Beijing with more than 1,000 members, was forced to hold its worship services outdoors.  The government’s persecution of the church has lasted for 38 weeks nonstop and is ongoing.  This large-scale and persistent crackdown on Shouwang Church is part of the government’s widespread suppression of house churches in 2011 and can be viewed as a continuation of the persecution that started with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

(This July 3, 2011 photo shows Shouwang church members who managed to get to the outdoor worship site starting their Sunday morning worship service.)

Shouwang Church was established in Pastor Jin Tianming in 1993 as a Beijing college students fellowship.  According to its March 27, 2011 “Beijing Shouwang Church Announcement to the Congregation” and its April 14, 2011 “Beijing Shouwang Church’s Further Explanation on Outdoor Services,” the church began in 2005 to rent office building space for its Sunday services, and in 2006 applied to the government for permission to register, which has never been granted.  On May 11, 2008, taking advantage of the pre-Olympic Games “rectification” of society, the religious affairs bureau, the police and other government departments of Beijing’s Haidian District burst into a Shouwang meeting and tried to close down the church, to no avail.  In August 2009, under repeated pressure from the government, the landlord of Huajie Building where the church had been meeting terminated the lease with Shouwang Church, and the church was forced to hold worship services outdoors on Nov. 1 and 8 in Haidian Park, after which the government allowed the church to hold its activities indoors.  On Dec. 22, Shouwang Church purchased the 1,500-square-meter (16,145-square-foot) second floor of the Zhongguancun Daheng Technology Building, paying in full the price of 27 million yuan (US$4.27 million).  However, due to government pressures behind-the-scenes, the seller has not handed over the keys, nor given any explanation for refusing to do so.  In May and August of 2010 and in March 2011, Shouwang Church made three attempts to rent indoor venues but met with failure each time due to government interference.

At the end of March 2011, Shouwang Church was no longer able to hold its Sunday services at its leased premises in the “Old Story Club.”  So Shouwang Church, which had adopted as its vision and mission to be a “city on a hill,” was left with no recourse but to hold its April 10, 2011 Sunday worship service outdoors.  At 8:30 a.m., more than 200 believers showed up at the third-level platform of Zhongguancun Plaza, which is located south of the Beijing Zhongguancun Dinghao Building and southeast of Zhongguang Building, and connected to the Jiangnanfu Theme Restaurant.  More than 160 church members were taken into police custody.  All were released within 24 hours with the exception one pastor and his wife, who were detained for 48 hours.

(This July 3, 2011 photo shows Shouwang Church members outside a police station singing worship songs to encourage brothers and sisters being detained in the police station.)

In the 37 weeks that followed―until the last Sunday of 2011, which was Christmas Day―the same basic scenario played out every Sunday.  Shouwang Church members would go to the designated location every Sunday for their outdoor worship service, and police and Domestic Security Protection guards would take them into custody.  They would be sent to different police stations where they were usually detained for no more than 48 hours and released singly or in small groups.  During the 38 weeks of outdoor worship, a total of more than 1,000 church members were taken into police custody, including a few believers from other churches who joined them in a show of solidarity.  Several hundred other church members were placed under house arrest by police and Domestic Security Protection guards.  During this time, some believers were verbally and physically abused while in detention, and some lost their jobs or were evicted due to government pressure on their employers and landlords. The church’s pastors and elders were confined under house arrest the entire time and deprived of their liberty.

Shouwang’s pastors and believers have endured unimaginable pressure and paid a heavy price.  This protracted act of obeying God rather than man and of upholding the vision of being “a city on a hill” is still ongoing―as is the government’s illegal persecution.

For more details, go to:
http://www.chinaaid.org/2011/04/beijings-shouwang-church-issues-q-about.html
http://www.chinaaid.org/2011/04/further-statement-on-outdoor-worship.html
http://www.chinaaid.org/2011/04/nature-of-battle.html
http://www.chinaaid.org/2011/12/beijing-shouwang-church-announcement-on_27.html
 
For the other nine representative cases of persecution, click "continue reading" below. 

RISING DISCONTENT IS CHALLENGING CHINA'S RULE

The editors of the Wall Street Journal  reflect on the rising unhappiness in China: 

If economic growth is supposed to enhance people's welfare and therefore satisfaction, China in 2011 is a conundrum. The economy is on track to grow more than 9%, yet this has been a year of rising discontent.

On the Chinese equivalents of Twitter, criticism of the government is exploding, despite fierce censorship. A recent poll by Tsinghua University and the magazine Xiaokang found that 40% of Chinese are unhappy with their lives, while another survey by the magazine Outlook and Peoples University found 70% of farmers dissatisfied, mainly because of land seizures. Some 60% of the rich are emigrating or considering doing so, according to a survey by the Hurun Report and the Bank of China. Even the People's Daily warned last week that there is a "crisis of confidence" in government.

HUGH HEWITT INTERVIEWS HENRY KISSENGER "ON CHINA"

Hewitt regards former Secretary of State Henry Kissenger's book, On China, as MUST READING for the foreign policy elite, every executive doing business in China, and every student hoping to do so someday. Hewitt writes:

Saturday July 9 marks the 40th anniversary of Henry Kissinger’s secret trip to China that began the  process of opening the relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic and culminated in Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing in February, 1972.

“There are two slightly different purposes in writing the book,” Kissinger told me in a wide-ranging interview yesterday (transcript here.)

“One is to explain how Chinese think about international affairs to non-Chinese,” he continued. “Not to explain the Chinese point of view so much as to explain the way of thinking, the different concepts of time, and the different concepts of deterrence and defense that the Chinese have.”

The second purpose is aimed at the Chinese.

“Now as far as the Chinese are concerned, what my book might do is show them how their actions are interpreted by other countries, and therefore, to the extent that they care about what other countries think, to enable them to conduct a policy that leads to cooperation rather than confrontation, if that is the decision they have made.”

Whether this second purpose is accomplished only Chinese officials can tell us, but Kissinger’s first mission is fully achieved and the result is alarming. . .    

What was chilling to me was Hewitt's next-to-last paragraph:

The most troubling aspect of the book is its brisk review of the emerging “triumphalist party” inside the PRC. Proponents of this view argue that an epic duel is now underway between the U.S. and China, and that the West’s weakness is revealed by the financial crisis of 2008. This aggressive nationalism could mutate into something like the Japanese militarism of the early 20th century with, Kissinger told me, the same sort of results as that unhappy chapter.   [more . . .]

Read Hewitt's interview with Kissenger about the book.  It makes for fascinating reading.

UPDATE ON "NON"-RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN CHINA

 Courtesy of the Family Research Council: 

A group of 19 Chinese Christian leaders has drafted and sent a petition to their Communist government asking that it honor the Chinese Constitution's assurance of religious liberty. "For the last six decades, the rights to liberty of religious faith granted to our country's Christians by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China have not been put into practice," they wrote. The Chinese government is continuing its campaign of repression against the so-called "unofficial" Chinese churches, whose members number as many as 70 million believers. According to China scholar Dr. William Jeynes in a lecture at FRC, the Chinese government realizes that Christianity fosters personal morality and economic growth, but "unofficial" Christians make the government "nervous." Why? Because the government can't control people whose first commitment is not to the state, but to Christ.

One of America 's great champions of religious liberty, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), held an important hearing earlier this month on China's ongoing assault on "unregistered" churches. "Because the Chinese government demands that religious organizations serve the aims of the state," he said, "religious organizations must receive government approval to operate... However, many religious observers adhere to the tenet that they must 'render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but unto God what is God's,' and as a result, they are persecuted." For up-to-the-minute reports on the crisis of Christian faith in China, go to FRC's RealCompassion.org website and click over to Voice of the Martyrs.

JAY NORDLINGER STRONGLY RECOMMENDS "GANG OF ONE"

I always perk up my ears when someone I respect enthusiastically recommends a book.  In a blog post that deals with the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Jay Nordling wrote: (my bolding)

Ten years ago, I wrote a piece about an amazing woman named Youqin Wang, who dedicated her life to memorializing the Cultural Revolution. If you’d like to read it, go here. Also, I reviewed a book called Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard. That was in 2004. (For the review — which comes after two others, in a single piece — go here.) The author is a man named Fan Shen. Frankly, his memoirs are among the best I’ve ever read.

I feel like I know a secret — like I know about a masterpiece, hidden from the world. "Gang of One" is the kind of book that might be read hundreds of years from now. Really. Odd to say, but I feel it true. The publisher is a humble one, the University of Nebraska Press. As far as I’m concerned, they are in possession of a literary, and human, diamond.

I'm making a note of this recommendation.

NORWAY FEELS STING OF CHINA'S NOBEL ANGER

 Bjoem H. Amland of the AP reports:

OSLO — Norway used to be China's top fresh salmon supplier, sending steadily growing volumes to exclusive restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai.

But since the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Norwegian salmon exporters say their fish is being held up for days or even weeks by Chinese food safety inspectors — devastating its freshness.

"We cannot get fish in there at all," said Henning Beltestad, the CEO of Norway's Leroey Seafood Group. . .   [more...]

Me:  China plays for keeps ...

THREE CHINESE CHRISTIAN LEADERS CONTINUE TO SUFFER, BLIND ACTIVIST BEATEN

China Aid Association reports:

Here are updates of some major persecution cases ChinaAid has been following:

Gao Zhisheng - Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng was kidnapped over 740 days ago.  He resurfaced briefly in the March of 2010 (read the AP report of his interview), but disappeared in April and has not been heard from since.  The Chinese embassy has repeatedly rejected the petition to free Gao, signed by nearly 150,000 people worldwide.  His whereabouts are still unknown. Bob Fu recently called for Gao’s release at a press conference with Congressman Frank Wolf on January 18, 2010 (watch video report). Visit FreeGao.com for more.

Alimujiang Yimiti - In far western China's Xinjiang region, authorities sentenced Uyghur Christian Alimujiang to 15 years in prison on trumped up charges of leaking state secrets. In a welcome development last December, Xinjiang's People's High Court agreed to review the case. No decision has yet been announced. ChinaAid continues to support Alimujiang's family and to fund his legal defense, and will continue to do so until he is free. Visit FreeAlim.com to learn more about his case.  

Dr. Fan Yafeng - Dr. Fan, a leading advocate of constitutional democracy and the head of Christian Human Rights Lawyers of China, the Shengshan (Holy Mountain) Culture Research Institute and the Shengshan (Holy Mountain) Church, remains under house arrest since his return home from police detention on December 18, 2011.  During his arrest he was tortured for several days.  Nineteen Beijing lawyers have written a letter protesting the torture of Fan and Gao.

Chen Guangcheng

Last week, ChinaAid received a breathtaking hour-long video about Chen Guangcheng, the blind self-taught human rights lawyer who exposed 130,000 mass forced abortions and forced sterilizations in Linyi County, Shandong Province, in 2005. Chen was released at the end of a four-year jail term on September 9, 2010, but has since been under daily house arrest.

The video shows Chen, his wife and daughter living in miserable conditions, cut off from all outside contact, and detained illegally in their home. Chen describes being monitored daily by three shifts of agents with each shift consisting of 22 people.

Chen and his wife Yuan speak with unfailing spirit and brave hearts to expose their inhuman treatment from the Chinese government.  He thanks supporters from around the world, and he indicates that he will never stop fighting for justice and rule of law.

Since its release, the video has received more than 33,000 hits on YouTube.  

Soon after the video’s release, ChinaAid learned that Chen Guangcheng and his wife were beaten by the police for releasing the video. They were beaten so severely that they were unable to move from their bed, and they were denied the right to go to the hospital for medical care.

"By taking further brutal action against this family,” said Bob Fu, “the Chinese government has not only shown total contempt for the rule of law in China, but also its determination to continue this absolute wrong path toward more disregard of its own citizens’ basic rights and freedom. We call for the leaders of the free world, especially the US and the European Union, to take immediate steps to help this family before more tragedies occur."

Visit Free Guangcheng, a primarily Chinese website, for information on writing to Chen.

ChinaAid Press Releases

2/15/11 Government Retaliation Continues, Foreign Journalists Mistreated in Wake of Smuggled Video by Blind Activist Chen Guangcheng
2/10/11 Urgent! Chen and Wife Beaten Severely, Chinese Citizens Appeal to America
2/9/11 Exclusive Video Shows Ill Treatment & Illegal Detention of Blind Activist Chen Guangcheng
2/9/11 A Video Shows Blind Activist Perseveres Under House Arrest

News from Other Media

CNN - Chinese Activist Truly Free?

CBN - Chinese Activist Beaten After Video's Release

BBC - China activist Chen Guangcheng 'beaten'
AFP - US concerned on China activist: official
Women’s Rights without Frontiers - China: Blind Activist “Beaten Senseless” for Smuggled Video
Associated Press - Secret video released of detained Chinese lawyer

 

Visit China Aid to learn how to help.

ANTI-AMERICAN SONG PLAYED BY CHINESE PIANIST LANG LANG AT OBAMA'S STATE DINNER FOR HU JINDAO

What a fiasco.  What kind of nincompoops are at the head of an Obama administration that invites a guest pianist to humiliate the United States on its own soil and in the presence of its President and other American dignataries?  Of course it goes along with Obama bowing to heads of state in his travels around the world.   Jay Nordlinger calls Lang Lang, the guest pianist, a kind of court pianist for President Obama and the Chinese leadership."  (my emphases follow)

What did he play? Most notably and significantly, he played a famous anti-American propaganda song. Famous in China, that is. Wei Jingsheng, the great Chinese democracy leader, exiled in the United States since 1997, wrote a letter to Congress and Secretary of State Clinton. He said, “I listened to that music with a big shock.” Wei explained that the song, “My Country,” or “My Motherland,” comes from “the best-known Communist propaganda movie about the Korean War,” depicting the Chinese army’s fight with the Americans. The movie is called "The Battle of Triangle Hill."  Wei said that the movie is as well-known in China as "Gone with the Wind "is here.

The song refers to the Americans as “wolves” or “jackals,” and says that the Chinese will use weapons to deal with them. Wei commented, “Is that not an insult to the USA to play such . . . music at a state dinner hosted by the US President? No wonder it made Hu Jintao really happy.” Yes, no wonder. As Wei pointed out, Hu is not ordinarily given to public emotion, but he emotionally embraced Lang Lang.

Do you find this shocking?    I certainly do.  What does Obama think of the America he is supposed to represent and defend?   Does he not recognize a responsibility to defend America's honor?  Nordlinger goes on:

(click  below)

LETTER TO U.S. CONGRESS BY WIFE OF TORTURED CHINESE HERO

Jay Nordlinger has sobering words to share with reference to the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to the United States.  Nordlinger writes:

In a below post, I mentioned Gao Zhisheng, one of the best people in all of China — I believe he is still alive.  [Me: See my earlier post on Gao Zhisheng here.]  With the PRC, the government we Americans are honoring this week, you never know. Gao has been incredibly brave: He has defended Falun Gong practitioners, “house church” activists, and other people targeted by the government for arrest, torture, and death. Gao has paid very, very heavily for his principles.

In April 2009, Gao’s wife, Geng He, wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress. I wrote about this matter in a column, here. The letter in full can be found here. Geng began,

“On the night of September 21, 2007, my husband, with a black hood thrown over his head, was kidnapped and brought to an unknown location. For 59 days, many people tortured and ravaged him in all kinds of ways, including beating him with an electric prod, inserting bamboo sticks into his reproductive organs, holding lit cigarettes close to his eyes and nose, etc., so that his eyes would burn and he would be forced to inhale smoke. My husband told me later that he was in such unbearable pain at the time that his sweat, blood, and other bodily fluids covered the floor. Among the reasons the authorities gave for tormenting my husband was that he had written to the United States Congress.”

The head of the government that has done this to Gao, we are honoring at the White House, our American home. Isn’t that wonderful? Are you proud?

Geng went on to write,

“I remember that, when my husband was still free, whenever major human rights cases arose in China, he would always look towards the United States. He always said: The United States is the cornerstone of world freedom, human rights and social order; the United States would not tolerate despotic rule and the wanton abuse of the weak and the masses.”

Ain’t that quaint? I’m sure you’re laughing your head off. One more excerpt, from Geng’s letter:

“Honorable members of the U.S. Congress, please help me support my husband, lawyer Gao Zhisheng, so that the evil forces will know that there is resistance against persecution; so that the millions of Chinese suffering this despotic rule will know that the United States is concerned about their human rights situation, and will not give up. My husband would be more resolute because of this, the Chinese people would feel inspired because of this, and China and the world would eventually transform because of this!

“Many thanks for your concern!”

“Your concern”? Our concern?! I’ll tell you what our concern is, lady: to make money and go with the flow.

At the beginning of this administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, traveling in Asia, said that human rights would not be allowed to “interfere” with such urgent issues as “the global climate-change crisis.” This week’s pomp in honor of Hu Jintao proves that the administration is true to its word: Human rights sure as hell aren’t interfering.

SHAMEFUL FAILURE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO SUPPORT DEMOCRACY IN IRAN - AND CHINA

I remember well the silence of the Obama administration in 2009 when Iranians rose up in revolt against their rulers.  Fouad Ajami in a Wall Street Journal article today also recalls that moment.  He writes: (my bolding)

. . .  Mr. Obama had come into office with a belief that he knew and understood the Islamic world. He was proud that Islam was a strand in his identity. He was sure that the policy of his predecessor had antagonized Islam. President George W. Bush's "diplomacy of freedom" was not given the grace of a decent burial. "Ideology is so yesterday," Secretary Clinton proudly proclaimed in early 2009. Realpolitik was to be the order of the day.

The Bush diplomacy had declared an open ideological assault against the Iranian theocracy. Mr. Obama would offer that regime an olive branch and a promise of engagement. Syria had been pushed out of Lebanon and viewed as a renegade regime that had done its best to frustrate the American war in Iraq. The Obama diplomacy would offer the rulers in Damascus diplomatic rehabilitation.

Thus the word went forth to the despots in the region that the American campaign on behalf of liberty that Mr. Bush had launched in 2003 had been called off. A new Iraqi democracy, midwifed by American power, was fighting for its life. The Obama administration would keep Iraq at arm's length.

This break of faith with democracy was put on cruel display in the summer of 2009, when the Iranians rose in revolt against their rulers. True, American diplomacy was not likely to alter the raw balance of power between the regime and its democratic oppositionists. But the timidity of American power, and the refusal of the Obama administration to embrace the cause of the opposition, must be reckoned one of American foreign policy's great moral embarrassments. . .   [more . . .]

Me:  Mr. Ajami goes on to talk about Syria, Lebananon, and Tunisia in this article.   But I wanted to record Ajami's assessment of President Obama's inexplicable and shameful failure to support the 2009 uprising.  Though it struck me forcefully at the time, it seemed that Obama's silence never received the attention it deserved.  Now the distinguished Fouad Ajami offers his opinion, and explains how the ebb of Americn power continues to affect the Middle East.

(Ajami is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. )

Update 1/20/11 - Regarding the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington, Ellen Bork notes that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo

undermined the carefully cultivated image of a legitimate regime in full control of, and tacitly accepted by, its people.  Chinese leaders fear international support for individuals who are brave and stubborn enough to work for a democratic alternative to the Communist party. . . .

On January 13, he [President Obama] did meet at the White House with a group of experts and activists on China. But people who would have offended Chinese leaders — people like Harry Wu, the former prisoner of China's laogai or forced labor camps; Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled Uighur leader; Ngawang Sandrol, a Tibetan nun jailed and tortured for her songs of praise for the Dalai Lama; Wang Juntao, a former Tiananmen protester; or Wan Yanhai, a famous AIDS activist and longtime associate of Liu Xiaobo — they were absent.

The president's determination to avoid using the weight and prestige of his office to support democratic opponents of authoritarian regimes in China, Iran, Belarus, and elsewhere is quickly becoming a hallmark of his administration. It's a dispiriting trend. And it suggests that the president simply does not grasp the meaning and potential of Liu Xiaobo and his fellow Chinese democrats.  (my emphases)

Update #2 - Washington Post editorial - "President Obama makes Hu Jintao Look good on rights"

YOUNG CHINESE PROFESSIONALS EMBRACING CHRISTIAN FAITH

This is a fascinating story.  Some believe the growth of ‘third-kind” churches in China, composed largely of young urban professionals, will play an increasingly significant role in the evolution of the Chinese church and its impact on senior levels of Chinese society.   May it be so.   Meanwhile, all is not rosy.  China Aid keeps the world up-to-date on the persecution and hardship that Christians endure in many parts of China.   Special attention needs to be paid to the kidnap and torture of Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng and the Uyghur Christian convert from Islam Alimujiang Yimiti, now serving an outrageous and unjust 15 year prison sentence.  I previously wrote about him here.  For more details click here and here.

Seasoned China watcher, David Aikman, for many years Time magazine's Beijing bureau chief and author of Jesus in Beijing, was interviewed Dec. 27, 2010 by Compassion Radio.  A  Dec. 28, 2010 interview with Bob Fu, a student participant in the 1989 Tinnamen Square uprising and founder of the human rights organization, China Aid Association, can be heard here.   Both interviews provide current updates on the situation in China. 

Readers might find the book, Chinese Intellectuals and the Gospel (edited by Samuel Ling and Stacey Bieler) of interest.  Regarding the Chinese Communist government's common hostile attitude towards Christianity, it should be noted that it refused permission for 200 invited Chinese Christian leaders to attend the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism held in Cape Town, South Africa last October.

Update 1/6/11 - Elizabeth Kendall produced a tremendously valuable and comprehensive report on Christianity in China on September 29, 2010.  It remains a "must-read" analysis.

CHINA'S MILITARY MIGHT

Pat Buchanan on China's military prowess in the Pacific:  (HT: Drudge)

Missiles fired from the Chinese mainland could destroy five of the six major U.S. air bases in the Far East. So states a new report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, adding:

"Saturation missile strikes could destroy U.S. air defenses, runways, parked aircraft, and fuel and maintenance facilities. Complicating this scenario is the future deployment of China's anti-ship ballistic missile, which could hold U.S. aircraft carriers at bay outside their normal operating range."

Opposite Taiwan, China's missile force has reached 1,600.

Beijing is also building rockets, submarines and surface fleets to extend her dominance out to the third chain of islands, enabling the People's Liberation Army to strike U.S. carriers and bases as far away as Guam. . .  [MORE . . .]

Also - China's New Drones Raise Eyebrows . . .

CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURAL ADVANCE: THE CHINESE SEE THE CONNECTION

Chuck Colson notes that Chinese thinkers recognize more and more that the West's success has been due to its Christian roots.

[...] The Chinese government is studying the impact of Christian entrepreneurs and Christian-run businesses. A professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told Landau that it’s clear to him that the growth of Christianity and economic prosperity are taking place simultaneously in Wenzhou—a city deeply influenced by Christian missionaries in the past.

Colson again:

An American sociologist named Rodney Stark would not be surprised at this finding: He’s been saying the same thing for years. Stark is the author of a wonderful book titled the Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.

Stark writes that without Christianity’s commitment to “reason, progress, and moral equality . . . today the entire world would be about where non-European societies were in, say, 1800.” This would be a world “lacking universities, banks, factories, eyeglasses, chimneys, and pianos”—not to mention scientists.

Amazingly enough, at the end of his book, Stark quotes a published statement by Chinese scholars, who said they had no doubt that Christianity is the source of Western prosperity! “The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life,” they said, “was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and the successful transition to democratic politics.”

DAVID MURRIN - AMERICA'S DECLINE AND CHINA'S RISE WILL BE FASTER THAN PEOPLE EXPECT

A few days ago I posted Mark Steyn's reflections, "The U.S. is in the Express Lane to Declinistan."  Posting such an article gives me no pleasure.  Quite the opposite.  I want to see the U.S. flourish and function as a shining beacon of hope for the rest of the world.  Anyone with eyes open, however, sees the rot and  corruption and irresponsibility taking over the nation and its governance.

Which brings me to David Murrin's new book, Breaking the Code of History: A Map for the Future.  I had never heard of Murrin before reading a John Derbyshire post over at the Corner.  Murrin granted CNBC a 7 minute video interview which is MUST VIEWING.  Murrin believes in cycles of history and projects the West's rapid decline.  Especially noteworthy is how rapid he foresees the change taking place.  Contra Mark Steyn, he sees China as the rising colossus.  I agree with Murrin.

WHERE IS GAO ZHISHENG? (CHINESE HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST)

Jay Nordlinger over at The Corner posts the following:

One year ago today, Gao Zhisheng was “disappeared.” He is the Chinese human-rights lawyer who, in his life, has endured a great deal to bring a touch of decency to China, and to let the broad world know of the depredations of the ruling Communists. On February 4, 2009, they snatched him, and just disappeared him. As I noted in a column last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry was recently asked about him. Its spokesman said he “is where he should be.” And where may that be? A dungeon? A grave?

There is a website called Free Gao: here. And to read a letter his wife sent to Congress last April, go here. It does not make for easy reading — but, in my view, it makes for important reading. Gao Zhisheng is one of the great men in the world today, and should not be forgotten, especially by the United States.

Me:  I signed the petition at www.freegao.com website and read the letter Gao's wife sent members of Congress last April.  This man has been brutally tortured time and time again, and has not been heard from in over a year.  The Chinese government refuses to report where he is being held and under what conditions.   ChinaAid, a Christian organization monitoring persecution of Christians in China, posted a new press release yesterday.   Signing the petition and keeping this man(and his family) in our prayers may be one of the most important things you and I do today.

JOURNALISTS EUNA LEE AND LAURA LING TELL THEIR STORY OF IMPRISONMENT IN NORTH KOREA

The story is well worth reading. 

We had traveled to the area to document a grim story of human trafficking for Current TV. During the previous week, we had met and interviewed several North Korean defectors -- women who had fled poverty and repression in their homeland, only to find themselves living in a bleak limbo in China. Some had, out of desperation, found work in the online sex industry; others had been forced into arranged marriages.

Now our guide, a Korean Chinese man who often worked for foreign journalists, had brought us to the Tumen River to document a well-used trafficking route and chronicle how the smuggling operations worked.  . .    Feeling nervous about where we were, we quickly turned back toward China. Midway across the ice, we heard yelling. We looked back and saw two North Korean soldiers with rifles running toward us. Instinctively, we ran. . .   [MORE . . .]

CHINA AFTER THE TIANANMEN SQUARE MASSACRE

Chuck Colson has the story:

Worldview Consequences

Twenty years later, the vivid memories are coming back. Thousands of students protesting in the streets—and gathering at Tiananmen Square. And then, on June 4, the Chinese government turning its guns and tanks on its own people.

This week, we have heard commentators discuss the consequences of the crackdown. One of the comments I found most intriguing came from a Chinese pastor who last night spoke at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. His words demonstrated once again how God can bring good out of evil.

Through the June 4 tragedy, Pastor Hong Yujian said, “We see that . . . God prepared the hearts of the people for the widespread dissemination of the Gospel . . . in China.” First, he said, Tiananmen Square “destroyed the last sense of hope the Chinese people had in the idol of communism. The massacre of ordinary people by the government fully exposed the

THE WEST'S SATISFACTION WITH MEDIOCRITY

"Spengler" uses the celebrity of Susan Boyle to say some hard things about the West.  I personally don't want to take anything away from Miss Boyle, whom I find enchanting and whose success I find heartening, but at the same time, what Spengler says about the West, in contrast to the industriousness of Asia, bears contemplating.  (HT: John Derbyshire)

Update:  After posting the above, I learned that Spengler has now identified himself in an autobiographical essay published today.  (HT: Hugh Hewitt)   I have found "Spengler's" articles for Asia Times Online invariably fascinating.  "Spengler" has been the pseudonym for  David P Goldman, newly hired as associate editor of First Things.  (Which makes me think, despite Richard J. Neuhaus' passing, I'll maybe renew my subscription when it expires.)

CHINESE PIANO FEVER

I've often wondered about the future of the United States given its low high school graduation rate, the educational establishment's preference for social engineering to academic rigor, and, in general, the average young person's  greater interest in video games than in things academic.  Then comes along Spengler, a writer for Asian Times, with an interesting piece that contrasts China with the United States, and in the process extols the virtues of musicianship. [my emphases follow]

Thirty-six million Chinese children study piano today, compared to only 6 million in the United States. The numbers understate the difference, for musical study in China is more demanding.  It must be a conspiracy. Chinese parents are selling plasma-screen TVs to America, and saving their wages to buy their kids pianos - making American kids stupider and Chinese kids smarter. Watch out, Americans - a generation from now, your kid is going to fetch coffee for a Chinese boss. That is a bit of an exaggeration, of course - some of the bosses will be Indian.Americans

NUMBERS OF CHRISTIANS IN CHINA MAY BE LESS THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT

This is a sobering evaluation.

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY A BIG BENIFICIARY OF THE OLYMPICS

Jay Nordlinger regretfully states what he terms the "awful truth":

I think it’s pretty clear that the Olympics have been a big success for China — for the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party, which runs the place). The Olympics have enhanced the party’s legitimacy, buttressed its authority — prettied up its image. A few months ago, Wei Jingsheng, the great dissident, told me that if the Olympics were a success for the Communists, they (the party) would have another 20 years. And so they will, I suppose.

Click here for more.

YANG JISHENG, CHINA'S "SOLZHENITSYN," EXPOSES THE GREAT CHINA FAMINE

Anne Applebaum reports on "the first proper history of China's Great Famine, a catastrophe partly engineered by the Chinese Communist Party and its first leader, Mao Zedong."

"I call this book Tombstone," the author, Yang Jisheng, writes in the opening paragraph. "It is a tombstone for my father who died of hunger in 1959, for the 36 million Chinese who also died of hunger, for the system that caused their death, and perhaps for myself for writing this book."

"Tombstone" has not been translated. Nevertheless, rumors of its contents and short excerpts are already ricocheting around the world (I first learned of it recently in California, from an excited Australian historian). Based on a decade's worth of interviews and unprecedented access to documents and statistics, "Tombstone" -- in two volumes and 1,100 pages -- establishes beyond any doubt that China's misguided charge toward industrialization -- Mao's "Great Leap Forward" -- was an utter disaster.

In addition to the Applebaum article, see this article, linked in the quote two paragraphs above.

PRAY FOR PRESIDENT BUSH'S VISIT TO CHINA

From Christianity Today -

Add one more China Olympic Prayer Band to the 500,000 given by Voice of the Martyrs supporters to raise awareness of persecuted Christians. Just a few days ago, President George Bush received a prayer bracelet from Bob Fu, president of China Aid Association. Read the official White House story.

President Expresses Concerns about China

Bob and four other Chinese human rights advocates met with President Bush in a room usually reserved for diplomats. White House officials said President Bush organized the historic 45-minute meeting to "discuss his concerns about human rights in China," ahead of the Olympic Games next month. "The President seems very concerned about the worsening situation for human rights in China," Bob Fu said. "I gave him five China prayer bands for his family to wear and four house churches addresses and told him he would be welcomed to attend their Sunday service when he is there next week."

Click Here Now To Receive Your FREE Olympic Prayer Band

Pray for President's Visit to China

The President told Bob that he will talk to the press and the Chinese people about the importance of religious freedom. He also promised to tell China's leaders that they cannot use the Olympics as a pre-text to further crackdown on human rights. Please pray President Bush will be successful in advocating for the persecuted church to Chinese leaders. Pray the President will heed Bob's request to intercede for house church Christians in China such as Zhang Rongliang, who is currently serving 7 1/2 years in prison.

CHINESE BUILD SECRET NUCLEAR SUBMARINE BASE

This is serious.  The London Telegraph carries the story.   (HT: Drudge)

China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed.

There's a whole lot more in this article.  Serious indeed.  (more. . . )

CHINA'S EMERGING MASTERY OF THE WORLD

Anthony Brown's article in the British Daily Mail does an excellent job surveying the ascendancy of China and the corresponding descent of the United Sates and Europe.  This phenomena is more and more in the news, as well it should be, and this article joins others in specifying the facts.  (HT: Drudge)  A  quote:

China is spending 35 times as much on crude oil as it did eight years ago, and 23 times as much on copper.

As it builds gleaming skyscrapers on its fields, China alone consumes half the world's cement and a third of its steel.

What is happening is so extraordinary that economists have had to invent a new word for it - this is not an economic cycle, but a supercycle, a shift in the world economy of historic proportions.

Me: I can remember in the early 70's certain of my friends and I clearly saw the future belonging to Asia.  If Christian faith continues to grow in China and India, then there can be added to these cultures some of the West's most positive heritage - a concern for the freedom of the individual, the sanctity of life, and human rights in general.   I hope it will be so.

REPORT SHOWS RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION ON RISE IN CHINA

Update 2/28/08 - Item 1 -  China Attorney Who Helped Forced Abortion Opponent Detained and Beaten  Item 2 - 21 Major House Church Leaders Sennt to Labor Camp in Shandong at the SAME TIME

 - Click here for a summary of the China Aid report.  The Family Research Council comments:

Both China Aid and the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China agree that the religious crackdown is becoming more pronounced in the months leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The cases of persecution against house churches are up more than 25 percent from 2006, and the number of individuals harassed or imprisoned grew from 665 to 788, including unprecedented antagonism against foreigners.

BRITAIN MUZLES THEIR OLYMPIC ATHLETES FROM CRITICIZING THE CHINESE REGIME

Oh brother!  Talk about a kow tow to tyranny and an abject overthrowing of  free speech!

British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record – or face being banned from travelling to Beijing.

The move – which raises the spectre of the order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938 – immediately provoked a storm of protest. . . 

Should a competitor agree to the clause but then speak their mind about China, they will be put on the next plane home.

Read the story and weep for spineless England.  Many in England are calling for a boycott of the Olympics under these  requirements.  (HT: Drudge)

China's New Best-Seller: The Bible

Time magazine has the story.   Excerpt:

. . . But in the face of China's larger restrictions on religion, some overseas aid groups say, a boom in Bible production doesn't mean much. "It reflects the rapid growth of the number of Christians in China," says Bob Fu, who runs the U.S.-based China Aid Association, an advocacy group for mainland Christians. "But I don't see that can be a sign of increasing religious freedom." Several Chinese have recently been arrested for illegally bringing Bibles into the country, Fu points out. On Nov. 28, police raided the house of Beijing bookstore owner Shi Weihan, confiscating Bibles and other

270 Christian Leaders Arrested in Shandong Province China

The Family Research Council links to the story:

Linyi (AsiaNews) – Police in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong have arrested 270 Protestant pastors from house Churches for taking part in an “illegal religious gathering” in the district of Hedeng near the city of Linyi. At present about 150 Christians are still in a state prison, this according to a US-based NGO, the China Aid Association (CAA), which lobbies for freedom of worship in China.

The arrests took place last Friday at around 1.30 pm local time. The Protestant clergymen had met to study the Bible when about 50 policemen from 12 different towns stormed the meeting place, blindfolded and handcuffed them two-by-two, and then taken them to a local police station for questioning.

According to Reverend Li, an eyewitness, the raid was “violence and swift.” Police arrived in armoured trucks and prevented anyone from leaving the area. About 120 Christians were eventually released after paying 300 yuan (US$ 40) as an “interrogation tax.”

Beijing allows evangelical Christianity to exist in China but only within the Three Self-Patriotic Movement, an organisation set up in 1950 soon after Mao’s