We'll be doing a short series on China. Why is China important? You can't have missed its recent aggressive tactics over spying and our Government's strange inaction. Also a London super-embassy with more undisclosed space than it needs and proximity to sensitive communications cables.
You will be aware of the persecution of Christians in China also of the Uygurs and Tibetans and anyone who challenges CCP rule, whether they mean to or not. There are reports of forced labour and organ harvesting.
You might also be aware of fears of eavesdropping or sabotage through hidden code in electronic equipment. China's Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) system is being rolled out and combined with Social Credit scoring will provide some benefits but also increase monitoring and reduce personal freedom. For Christians and others who oppose such controls the future could be bleak, back to pre-Constantine persecution.
The CCP have an avowed intent to defeat the West and its liberal philosophy, proving that their authoritarian socialist system is better. They intend to take what they believe is their rightful place as the dominant power in the world.
The current US administration recognises this and their whole foreign policy is aimed at containing China. This includes building trading and diplomatic relations with Asian and other nations, even trying to bring Putin's Russia on-board!
We need to understand what is happening and bring this before the Lord so that we should know what to do, what to pray for.
Here are a few brief notes on key areas that will be expanded in future articles.
History
What of their history? They have been isolated from the West by sheer distance, but became an ancient and vast empire (larger than current borders) experiencing internal conflict and invasions from the north (hence the Great Wall).
The first recorded European contact was by the Venetian Marco Polo in the 13th century. As Britain developed trade with India in the 1600s this later extended to next-door China for tea, porcelain and other goods. Trade was strictly regulated by the Chinese with more export than import. A key problem was the means of exchange and this lead to the illegal indirect import of opium from India to get currency to pay for exports. Conflicts with the West, Russia and Japan from the 1840s weakened the Chinese 'Quing' government and the start of the 'century of humiliation' up to the end of the WW2, the Communist takeover and the terrible effects of the Cultural Revolution.
Confucianism was the adopted religion of China and has similarities with Greek philosophy being humanistic with strong elements of ethics, government responsibility and social conduct, including respect for received customs and ways of life. This made them resistant to external influence (hence limits on trade and foreign residents). Today's system is a curious synthesis of this with Marxism.
Commentators differentiate between the Chinese people and the party elite, the CCP. Chinese language(s) and written script make it harder for us to understand them. How does this all work? What do people really think?
James Hudson Taylor arrived in the mid 1850s during a period of increased openness. He respected the culture and controversially adopted Chinese dress and hairstyle. The China Inland Mission he founded eventually became the largest mission in China. What has become of it?
Economy
It's hard not to know about the loss of UK manufacturing capacity as work is offshored, predominantly to China. Almost all durable goods come from China. How did they get into this position? A big element was getting Western businesses to invest – promising large returns.
One element of this was funding the building of factories for parts for a British or American manufaturer and the company making savings directly on the costs of these parts. This worked quite well until it was seen that the CCP governemnt was subsidising particular sectors to strategically undercut other producers (at home or in other Asian countries). In this they deliberately break the WTO rules that forbid it.
All companies in China are effectively state-controlled so as well as controlling policies it can also extract capital and move it around on demand.
They also move from supplying parts to the whole product so destroying the Western manufacturers financial model. There seems to be little sense of 'good-faith' and Western businesses can too often be wrong-footed and Intellectual Property taken. Indeed a Western idea of a good deal is when both get something out of it, the Eastern idea is of dominating the opponent.
Other projects are just blind funding by financial institutions for plant developed by Chinese companies with a promise of return. Another big draw is promise of access to the Chinese market for your product especially for services chains.
A problem with these seems to be that it becomes very difficult to get money out. Currency controls mean that converting profits to £ or $ become problematic. So how does it continue? Part of it has been the Chinese working out which levers to pull to manipulate Western investors and shamelessly exploiting these weaknesses. Becoming wise to this, investors resort to complicated mechanisms to realise some connection with value. The overall effect however is undue exposure of Western capital (your pension fund?) to CCP control (they could just nationalise it all or apply manipulative pressure in other areas).
The investment in the vast empty "ghost cities" is astonishing - why are they there?
Headlines about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may have passed you by, but this is a massive push to control not just production but also distribution throughout the world. What has this meant for the nations being used? Is your supply-chain safe in their hands?
China's economy is now second-only to the US in size, but how secure is it? How are 'the workers' doing out of it - they should be rich? How is the West responding?
Overseas
The main motivation of the CCP is to dominate its enemies. It believes China to have been exploited in the past so has the right to take revenge on everyone. Perceived opponents 'will have their heads bashed bloody against a Great Wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people' declared Xi Jinping in 2021 celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP.
They do this with 'unrestricted warfare' – which is employing every aggressive behaviour they can get away with and which is especially successful in the gullible and sometimes greedy West.
The CCP has a significant influence over the UN through special funding arrangements and particular control over the Human Rights Commission, as touched on before.
We've heard about the Hunter Biden laptop which revealed the Biden family involvement in Ukraine. If also showed significant involvement with China. How much did this allow CCP influence over the US president, and by similar approaches, the Senate and Congress?
How do China's neighbours fare? What happens in the South China Sea? In Taiwan? How are the armed forces developing compared to the Western presence in the region? How is 'fifth generation warfare' (5GW) applied worldwide?
How well is the CCP doing to influence hearts and minds in the West through sending students and funding programmes in Universities, setting up 'Confucius Institutes', and leaning on Hollywood? Where does all the money come from?
At home
In many ways domestic policies are just an extension of this approach, like a wartime economy, every acton designed to build up strength to overcome the 'oppressors'.
The rebellion associated with Tienanmen Square revealed internal unrest and was crushed in a manner befitting the regime, but what are ordinary people thinking now? They are obviously not an amorphous blob so we need to understand what is going on within. How has the CCP's propaganda about China's past affected the populace's trust and tolerance of the regime. Maybe they are more pro-western than we think or maybe they like the Wushi (wolf-warrior) image and will demand more aggression against supposed Western dominance.
How have Christians fared? Does the legacy of James Hudson Taylor, The China Inland Mission, survive? What about the Chinese churches in Britain with services in Mandarin or Cantonese?
We'll dig into this and more in future articles.
