OPINION:
China’s “no limit” partnership with Russia now operates in the field of religious oppression.
The Chinese Communist Party loathes the Falun Gong spiritual movement with an intensity like no other. Yes, they oppress all faiths, but they save their deepest hatred and bile for Falun Gong practitioners, subjecting them to tortures, such as forced organ harvesting. It’s a practice so cruel it would make a medieval executioner cringe.
Now their hatred has gone transnational.
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As the leader of the current Axis of Evil, China calls the shots and the others in this diabolical alliance follow suit. Russia just conducted very public raids on Falun Gong practitioners in Moscow and other Russian cities even though these peaceful adherents pose no threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin or his regime.
As Putin prepares a state visit to China to present his list of continued needs to Chinese President Xi Jinping, this persecution of the Falun Gong will be a nice trinket to present his Chinese masters. It will bring a smile to their faces and warm their cold hearts.
We see the same in Nicaragua. That country’s ruler, Daniel Ortega, has been in unchallenged power for the last 17 years. In December 2021, Ortega ended his country’s recognition of Taiwan to exclusively recognize China. It’s no coincidence that this was also when Ortega decided to turn on both the Catholic Church and evangelicals.
Priests and evangelical pastors were imprisoned or expelled from the country. Churches were desecrated and colleges and radio stations shut down as the “no limit” partnership of Nicaragua and China took form.
Ortega got a lot of money and support out of his deal with China, but one of the conditions was the suppression of the faithful. Until this time, Ortega had largely run the country with a peaceful, albeit tense, co-existence with its faith communities. His nation is a deeply spiritual country with over 80% of the population identifying as Christians.
That has all changed in the last two years. There is no more peaceful co-existence. Daniel “Caesar” Ortega has the Chinese communists whispering in his ear and lining his pockets. Now, he has put his boot on the throat of the Catholic Church and the less structured evangelical leadership.
It is either submit, get out or go to prison. This is the China model and it is popping up all over the world.
The faithful, be they Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Falun Gong, or Christians of any and all types, are a threat to Communist China’s atheist leadership and they must either be controlled from the top down or subdued. Ortega is following in Xi’s footsteps to suppress people of faith. A Xi-led world is a dark place for people of faith everywhere.
Even now, China is exporting sophisticated surveillance systems to their acolyte countries. These systems are popping up like dandelions in the spring. Already a leader in surveillance technology, China will set you up, Mr. Dictator, with everything you need to watch your people 24/7 and maintain control.
Facial recognition and keyword data search systems are available at highly subsidized prices so you can follow everyone at an economical price. If anyone dares to use the name Jesus, Mohammad, Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Brahma or another local religious leader or historic figure, you can track them and arrest the leaders if things start happening that you don’t like.
Religion, in the Communist mind, is to be controlled by the state and made subservient to its interests, not the individual’s. To them, the soul doesn’t exist.
These surveillance tools weren’t even dreamed of by past autocrats and now are available for a Chinese song. This is all in the interests of the Chinese Communist Party and their desired global dominance.
They see the future world run by rulers with only power and money interests. Human rights are defined as what is best for the group. The dictator, of course, is who determines what is best for the group. That means what is best for him and order.
As long as the dictator stays in control and the money is flowing, everything is fine. Get out of line and you go to jail or somehow disappear. This is the opposite of the American Dream. It’s a world nightmare and we are sleepwalking into it.
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Sam Brownback is a former U.S. senator and governor of Kansas. He served as the United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom from 2018 to 2021 and chairs the National Council for Religious Freedom. He is also a Senior Fellow at Global Christian Relief.
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