communism

China Gaslighting Australia

/ MurrayCampbell

Gaslighting is the art of manipulating someone into doubting what is true and even to question their own sanity.

Unfortunately gaslighting has become a popular device in much political discourse and in some quarters of the media. The Communist Government of China are also exponents of gaslighting.

The Age is reporting today that, “China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Australia had been “infected with fear, conjecture and paranoia”.”

What is this paranoia that Australia is suffering? One of our citizens, TV anchor, Cheng Lei, has been arrested in China without charge. She is now imprisoned at an undisclosed location and the Chinese Government is refusing to inform the Australian Government as to the reason. They can detain Cheng Lai for 6 months without charge. 

This doesn’t sound an “infection of fear or paranoia”. Indeed, this is far from the first time China has acted in this way toward foreign citizens. While this story is unfolding, China has added to a growing series of sanctions fixed against Australian exporters, yesterday suspending barley trade from Australia’s largest grain exporter. 

According to the story in The Age, China has spent the past year actively reorienting its trade partnerships, moving away from Australia and increasing trade with countries like Argentina, Russia, and France.

Why is this a problem? Contrary to Beijing’s gaslighting, there are genuine reasons for Australia to be concerned about the rise of Communist China. 1.4 billion people are subjected to this authoritarian rule. This totalitarian regime has an extended history of persecuting minorities. Churches continue to be closed and pastors imprisoned. Churches that remain open are usually required to adopt a corrupt version of the Bible (all the awkward passages are removed and red book friendly sayings inserted). Around 1 million Uyghurs have been forced into ‘education’ camps. Hong Kong is losing her freedoms, military bases are being established in disputed areas in the South China Sea, and Taiwan’s democratic freedoms remains under threat.

In the meantime, China has been selling sugary treats all over the world to buy supporters and strategic gain, making foreign Governments dependent upon her for economic stability.  The One belt, one road scheme, which my State of Victoria has signed up to, is part of the Peoples’ Republic’s foreign policy and economic strategy.

Australia has experienced significant issues in 2020, from raging bushfires to a global pandemic and what is now the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression. Let’s not be mistaken, the fall out from these issues will not be quickly or easily resolved. On top of this, over the past 3 months the Federal Government has raised awareness over the posing complexity of Australia’s relationship with China. This has resulted in the urgent and immediate injection of $100 millions into military defence upgrades and cyber defence.  The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is also speaking more directly to the geopolitical issues arising in our region.

During this time, Europe is barely a shell of its former glory, and United Kingdom has chosen to drink the poison chalice of identity politics and the sexual revolution. The United States is genuinely reeling from its own growing internal troubles, all which require enormous political attention and which have the affect of draining people from having the mental and emotional energy for tackling other (and possibly bigger) issues that are on the horizon. The sun is setting on the West.

The point is simple, Communist China is thirsty for power and prestige. China appears to be growing in confidence and has already taken bold steps to increase her influence this year. Do they perceive that the West has become either too distracted politically or too depleted emotionally to respond with any real semblance of  fortitude?

25 years ago I listened D.A Carson expound the book of Ezekiel and heard him make the startling suggestion (which it was at the time) that the United States, like every superpower before her, would one day collapse. Sometimes Empires fall rapidly like a sudden avalanche. More often the demise takes places over many years (if not decades) like a slow moving glacier. The history of the world offers an array of geo-political, economic, and military reasons for the rise and fall of nations, but lurking behind collapse is a usual suspect; hubris. Hatred is another reason, and so is boredom.

Rome didn’t fall in a day. Through centuries of infighting, plagues, famines, and external threats, her power diminished. In 410Ad Rome was sacked by the Visigoths. With a flair harkening back to Nero and mirroring our own culture today, the Christians were to blame.  Rome was rebuilt, but only as a much weaker and vulnerable city with an ever shrinking influence.

There is more than one way to oversee the demise of a nation. One can buy influence or choose to bully your opponents. And if those methods fall short, there are always military options. So far, China has proven successful in both buying and bullying, but what will happen when others stand up to her?

History demonstrates that appeasement rarely satisfies a hungry dragon. It may delay action but only for so long.

I’ve been suggesting this for some months, but as we move deeper into this difficult year I am more convinced that the events thus far may pale into smallness in comparison with the growing threat to our north. It is time for us to get our houses into order.

Thankfully God doesn’t succumb to gaslighting. What he does do is tell us the honest truth about the world and about ourselves. Sometimes the truth is hard to swallow and so we prefer to create these imaginary bubbles where life is secure, the world is basically okay, and we deserve nothing but goodness. This may work in the short term, but as 2020 is revealing, eventually reality bursts the bubble.

2020 reminds me of how important prayer is as a Christian response to crises and threats.

I am also reminded of Psalm 146:6 which tells us, “Do not put your trust in princes,  in human beings, who cannot save.”

I am reminded of Jesus’ words to ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness”.

I am reminded of the imperative to teach my children the ways they should go and in whom they can put their trust.

I am reminded of Jesus’ words, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.” Into such a time as this, Jesus reminds his disciples of the priority of the Gospel, “ this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

I am reminded that a pastor’s role includes preparing and equipping the church for tomorrow.

This year is a once in a generation time to reassess what are our ultimate hopes and deepest desires. This year may also prove to be a trial run for more dangerous times ahead should China insist on her agenda and should the West continue to destroy itself in a myriad of culture wars.

“Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.” (Psalm 146:5)

Pray for China

/ MurrayCampbell / 1 Comment

The Chinese Government has recently reasserted Sinicization, the project aimed at conforming Christianity into the likeness of Communist China.

Over the past 70 years, China has born witness to one of the greatest movements the world has ever seen. At the close of the Second World War and with the rise of Communism, Western missionaries were removed from China and many left wondering what would happen to the fledgling Churches left behind in that extraordinary land.

Communism has little time for religion, as has been demonstrated in 100 years of socialist run States. Belief in God is deemed to be a threat to social harmony and to those who have power over the people.

As the bamboo curtain descended in the 1950s, God did not turn away from the Chinese people, but behind the scenes, he began an amazing work which has led to so many people becoming Christian, no one can count the number. Estimates range between 40 and 80 million followers of Jesus Christ in China today—possibly more Christians than in any other nation on earth.

It is somewhat ironic that the most ‘Christian’ nation is one with a communist Government with a capitalist facade!

 

robert-nyman-442988-unsplash.jpg

unsplash.com

Over the past 20 years, China has gradually opened its doors to the world outside, and in some Provinces, religious toleration is greater than in others. As the bamboo curtain rose a little, Anglo-European Christians discovered that God does not need Western Christianity in order to grow the Gospel elsewhere. The Holy Spirit does not travel through western missionaries into indigenous groups but rather, the Spirit is God’s gift given directly to all who come to faith in the risen Christ. This is not to denigrate centuries of European witness to the Gospel, for we should be thankful for the fact that men and women traveled to China, and many died in order to give the Gospel to that great land. Today there are still many non-Chinese men and women who are serving in a variety of ways inside China, to love the people and show people the reality and good news of Jesus.

Once again, Chinese Christians are facing persecution. The Government is clamping down on Christianity with new intent and severity. According to a report in the ABC, the crackdown includes:

  • removing Bibles from online stores
  • removing Christian objects from buildings
  • closing hundreds of churches
  • and forcing Christian icons to include or be accompanied by images of Mao Zedong.

The last of these measures reminds me of Daniel ch.3 where King Nebuchadnezzar exercised religious toleration by requiring all of his subjects to submit to a statue in his image. Who doesn’t like to think of the cross with an image of Mao Zedong standing over it!

One Pastor explained what has happened to his church,

“And then they [the authorities] came into the church saying that things inside should be removed.

“For example, the banner saying: ‘For God, so love the world’ and the scriptures were torn down, and all things related to the Bible and faith had to be cleared out.”

Papal Collusion

All this would be bad enough, but news this week is highlighting collusion with the Chinese Government by the Vatican.

While President Xi Jinping is beginning to sound like King Nebuchadnezzar, Pope Francis is appearing as one of his astrologers who betrays Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Writing for the New York Times, Ian Johnson has suggested that recent negotiations between the Chinese Government and the Vatican are designed to further stamp out underground Churches. In other words, to reduce even further any little autonomy and freedom Christian Churches might have had in China.

“Beijing’s goal in the agreement, however, appears to be the same as with the church demolitions: greater control over the rapid spread of Christianity, which gained a permanent presence in China in the 16th century.”

The deal will allow the Vatican to have greater say in appointing future Bishops in China (but not full control), and this was contingent upon Pope Francis formally recognising seven Catholics Bishops who have already been appointed by the Chinese Government.

According to Johnson,

“The ruling Communist Party sees the compromise with the Vatican as a step toward eliminating the underground churches where Chinese Catholics who refuse to recognize the party’s authority have worshiped for generations. With the pope now recognizing all bishops and clergy members in the official Catholic churches approved and controlled by the party, the underground church may have no reason to exist.

The move is part of a broader push by the government to clamp down on all aspects of society since Xi Jinping took power as the party’s leader in 2012.”

The founder of ChinAid, a Christian human rights organisation, Bob Fu, has responded to the deal,

“While we understand the eagerness of Vatican for seeking more legitimacy in the eye of the Chinese Communist Party, this reported deal is nothing but a betrayal of both the millions of suffering persecuted Christians in China and the global Catholic Church.” 

In other words, Pope Francis has struck a deal with the devil, one which will essentially hand over millions of Chinese Christians (especially Protestant Churches) into the unforgiving hands of the Government. According to all accounts, the Chinese Government is using the Vatican as a tool to increase pressure on underground Churches, either to close or to formally register and come under their authority and control.

Authoritarian Secularism

It is fair to say that many Christians in Australia are concerned with where things are heading in our own country. There are signs suggesting that new forms of authoritarian secularism are gaining momentum. The project to limit religious freedom and to control public Christianity has certainly gained ground in recent times. These moves need to be called out and pushed back for the sake of all Australians who believe in social pluralism and freedom of conscience, speech, and association. Do we really want to live in a country where the government or where self-appointed militia get to choose how Christian Christians can be or to police how Jewish Jews can be or how Hindu Hindus can be? 

Perhaps we should have one eye looking toward China, and ask ourselves, is that the kind of religious freedom we want to have here? We are a long way from the politico-religious scene of our northern neighbour, and yet it is not irrational to suggest that should some Australian political parties and notable social commentators have their way, we would be aiming toward an Australian Sinicization, conforming Christianity into the likeness of Australian humanistic secularism.

With a wonderful sense of divine irony, the future of Christianity in Australia, at least in part, lays with Chinese believers. As many Aussies of European descent turn their backs on God, preferring to worship plastic images of the self, large numbers of Chinese men and women, and of many from other ethnic descent, are becoming followers of Jesus Christ in Australia. It is exciting and encouraging. It’s as though the stupid identity politics and intersectionality ethics created by white middle-class university students, is being blown up before their very eyes.

The reason for writing this post is to raise further awareness of what is unfolding in China and to encourage Christians to pray.

When Paul shared his troubles with the Church in Corinth,  he mentioned the efficacy of the prayers offered for him by the Corinthians,

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” (1 Corinthians 1:8-11)

When we see terrible things in other parts of the world we respond with sadness,  concern,  and we may also carry a sense of helplessness, not knowing what to do.  As Christians, there is always one thing we can do, no matter where we are are in the world,  and that is, pray.

Prayer is not wasted breath to a nonexistent God, as our atheist friends might suggest. We pray to God our Father, who remains Sovereign over all nations even today, and who loves his people dearly, and who is committed to seeing his Gospel grow both here in Australia and in China.