The Pilgrim Underground: American Evangelicals Red Baiting the Chinese Government

05 November 2022

American Evangelicals Red Baiting the Chinese Government

I've touched before on how many American based missions organisations cannot be fully trusted when it comes to reporting the news. They often echo US State Department lines and when it comes to certain countries (such as China) there is a tendency to utilise talking points and narratives provided by the American Right.

As such, the claims of organisations like Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) must be met with a degree of scepticism. And when it comes to China, the likes of ChinaAid's Bob Fu cannot be trusted at all as he is effectively an extension of US government policy – and specifically the GOP. There's a reason Fu set up shop in Midland, Texas during the presidency of George W Bush – Midland being Bush's residence.

The government in China is detestable. This needs to be stated in no uncertain terms. And yet it does not help the greater cause of truth when Christian organisations resort to propaganda talking points provided by the Right. Beijing is certainly in the process of setting up a totalitarian order and while the government retains the label of communist – the regime cannot be honestly described as such.

The Chinese economic and political order is not communistic. The Chinese system allows and supports private enterprise, it does not exclusively own the means of production, and its companies are traded on international stock exchanges. The government in Beijing is not committed to internationalism – apart from its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which is an internationalist capitalist project. And while the communist regimes of the Cold War era were ostensibly committed to classless societies (and failed to achieve this), the Chinese system doesn't even pretend to support the notion.

This author and others have written about the course of modern Chinese history and the events that took place subsequent to the death of Mao Tse-tung. China completely abandoned Communism more than forty years ago and yet VOM and other organisations know that the 'communist' label gains traction and promotes a visceral reaction on the part of its audience and so they continue to use such red baiting tactics.

In fact not only is China no longer communist, the nation embraced capitalism and effectively sold out its population to Western Finance in the 1980's – turning the nation into a sweat shop for the West. It represented an utter and fundamental betrayal of basic communist principles and exposed the sham nature of their ruling class and its 'communist' claims.

This drastic move generated a great deal of upheaval and suffering but over time it also produced a degree of wealth within China. After a couple of decades the shift in economic policy slowly created a class of nouveau rich and the beginnings of a middle class. And yet the Chinese system is not rooted in a liberal order and as such it's hard for Westerners to grasp. Authoritarian Capitalism seems oxymoronic and in some respects it is – but this isn't to say that the Western system isn't likewise full of internal contradictions. And it must be remembered that it is during times of crisis that these contradictions become pronounced, problematic, and even dangerous.

Within the Chinese authoritarian capitalist system, those that toe the line are relatively speaking – free, and free to pursue wealth. And yet there is no doubt that under Xi Jinping the nature of Chinese society has changed. Arguments can be made with regard to China's course and whether its imperial policy is deliberate, a case of empire-creep, or the inevitable outcome of the capitalist system. Regardless, China has moved beyond its regional sphere and through global investment, and by the sheer power of its wealth, it has become a player on the world stage and is now a rival to the predominant world empire – the United States. This has put China on a war footing and war and militarism abroad always mean repression and clampdown at home and that's precisely what we are seeing.

Chinese Capitalism produced a nomenklatura or new class – those who are successful within the confines of the system. Like the nomenklatura of the Eastern Bloc, these people have a great deal of freedom and even privilege. The middling class experiences a type of semi- or limited freedom and the lower classes are largely in shackles by means of economic and social pressures – and increasingly authoritarian strictures such as the social credit system. We witnessed this tiered system under the various Stalinist regimes that emerged after World War II and even Western Capitalism can produce a similar result unless the forces of stratification and inequality are specifically combated as seen in the social democracies of Western Europe. Otherwise you will witness (even under a liberal capitalist order) a social hierarchy wherein the wealthy experience privilege in terms of political access and influence, bypassing aspects of the bureaucracy, the ability to manipulate the judiciary, and so forth. The poorer classes while technically 'free' are in fact restricted and at as distinct disadvantage when it comes to interacting with the state.

The advent of new computer technology has radically changed the calculus of these orders and their potential. Beijing has pursued it with abandon, while in the United States law enforcement and intelligence agencies continue to rely on clandestine operations and Wall Street to gather and collect the data. China is now leading the way and while the West will trail behind and thus attempt to retain the moral high ground, the truth is the West has its own mechanisms for control (which are in place and quietly functioning) and while regimes like China are heavily associated with propaganda, the truth is that the propaganda machine in the West is actually far more powerful and pervasive. Most in the West are not interested in fundamental questions as they are too distracted by economic concerns, and captivated by entertainment, sports, and pop culture.

At this point someone might say – who cares? Surely it cannot be an issue of concern as to whether or not Christian ministries refer to the Chinese as being communist?

But it does. Such rhetoric takes the form of propaganda, again such red baiting whips people up and generates anger and a desire to get involved. On a cynical note it can be pointed out that it convinces people to donate money.

Apart from being misleading (which itself is a problem for Christians), there's an added layer of danger and concern. It's not just a contest between America and China, it's 'Christian' America versus China. This is a falsehood of course but it doesn't matter as that's what many people believe and this is bad for Christians in America as it tends toward theologized militarism, corrupt ethics, and lends toward a mythologizing of America's history and status. And none of it is Biblical and yet there are many opportunistic political actors ready to capitalise on these impulses and make use of the people who hold to these ideas.

And it's bad for Christians in China as well as they are viewed as a Fifth Column and worse, many of these Christians under influence of American and Western teachers have embraced the confused syncretism so common in Evangelicalism – a blending of Enlightenment concepts concerning 'rights', liberty, democracy, and social contract with actual New Testament teaching. These elements in fact are in stark contradiction but few American Christians understand this and yet the effects in China are quite detrimental. This error when combined with Dominionism has had disastrous effects and now we see Christians being pursued for criminality and collaboration with state enemies and yet confusing their politically-rooted punishments with persecution.

And in addition to being bad for Christians in both America and China, it's bad for the worldwide testimony of the Church as it is transformed from being a eschatological body of those in union with Christ proclaiming his death till he come, into a political activist organisation with (in most cases) a set of Western-oriented political affiliations – often wed to the usurious and exploitative economic system known as Capitalism.

The social pressures that exist in China are also present in the West but few Christians notice them because they are already completely sold out to and beholden to the bestial system that dominates it. As such, like most Chinese, they simply bow to the system, carry on, and even flourish within that ideological bubble. Conformists in both systems can do rather well and lead very comfortable lives.

Nonconformists have long suffered in the West but the pressure is different and tends to be more subtle. And given the near ubiquitous compromise within the Western Church, such figures experience extreme isolation and without support many become confused and crumble under pressure.

By all means the Church should be critical of the Chinese government – and that of nations like Britain and the United States. Their orders represent a different kind of evil but it is no less so. What is needed is clear Biblical thinking, targeted speech, and a commitment to the truth no matter the emotional attachments of the audience. And by targeted speech it's appropriate for the Church to teach its people from the pulpit (as it were) and in terms of outreach – a critique of the existing social order is certainly appropriate. But at that point the Church needs to be careful that it is divorced from political activism. The motivations of such social critiques are not to change, rehabilitate, or sanctify society as such but to provoke unbelievers in terms of the gospel and to sharpen the Kingdom-world antithesis within the Church. The goals are not revolutionary or even couched in terms of political reform. The New Testament never pursues this. There is no suggestion of changing the social order or for Christians to influence it – let alone assume power. And in fact the doctrines and ethics taught by the Christ and the apostles both tacitly and explicitly reject and forbid such a paradigm or the activism that flows from it.

Most of the missions organisations and ministries out there are not committed to the New Testament view and it does not shape their interaction with and analysis of subject or targeted countries. They are committed to a larger set of social, political, and economic concerns and with such a dual agenda, they are guilty of manipulation and at times outright deceit.

Pray for China and the Christians there and pray that God would bring reformation and raise up godly and Biblically minded leaders. Pray that the American Church would shed the idol of mammon for it clouds and overshadows almost everything it engages in.

The Pilgrim Underground

05 November 2022

American Evangelicals Red Baiting the Chinese Government

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