China’s authoritarian, freedom-crushing leader Xi Jingping met Wednesday with America’s aging, cognitively-challenged president in San Francisco. They met together and part of an annual international conference known as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC.
Once persecution of a church starts, 'it usually doesn't stop'Charlie Butts, AFN.net A U.S.-based watchdog group that monitors China’s persecution of its people says a prominent church remains a constant target of thuggish authorities. Early Rain Church, which is well-known and hated by the Communist government, was raided by police during an October 28 church meeting, according to China Aid. After nine church members were taken away, a church pastor named Ding Shuqi and a deacon, Jia Xuwei, were beaten by police before all the church members were released the next morning. Early Rain, who holds public meetings despite threats, has been experiencing persecution from its government dating back to 2018. That year, after the government raided more than 100 churches across China, Early Rain’s pastor was sentenced to nine years in prison for “subversion” of the state. “So once it starts, it doesn't usually stop,” says Chad Bullard of China Aid. The mass raid of China’s churches in 2018 is known by Christians there as the “129 Crackdown,” which resulted in Early Rain being disbanded at the time. |
The 12-nation group meets annually to discuss trade and investment, and the U.S. is hosting the summit for the first time since 2011, according to an Associated Press story about the event.
The “sideline” meeting between President Biden and President Xi was the biggest news there, the AP said, because of icy relations between the U.S. and China. Among the looming issues are the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down 10 months ago and China’s very-public plan to invade and control Taiwan one day.
Here on U.S. soil, China is also kidnapping its citizens at illegal police stations; stealing trade secrets from corporations and universities; and sneaking trained operatives across the U.S. southern border.
China is also America's largest trading partner, which is why companies such as Apple, BlackRock, NIKE, Pfizer, and Honeywell hosted a dinner for Xi at the summit. Xi received a standing ovation from those Fortune 500 bosses during the dinner.
China expert Steve Mosher, who leads the Population Research Institute, tells AFN the key to understanding Xi and China is to understand the Chinese Communist Party that rules that nation.
“The idea of the Chinese Communist Party,” says Mosher, “is a new global order under Chinese control, and that's what they're working for.”
The logical next step of that domination is to control Taiwan, which sits 100 miles from mainline China. Taiwan has flaunted its independence ever since Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalist government fled there after World War II to escape Mao Zedong and an execution.
Bob Maginnis, a national security expert at the Family Research Center, says Xi came to the APEC conference this week at the same time China is experiencing economic challenges. An invasion of Taiwan would help, he warns, by providing a “distraction” for the Chinese leader.
China is also monitoring pending elections in Taiwan, which are coming in January. If vocal, pro-independence candidates win office, that would make the CCP nervous, Maginnis says.
According to Mosher, an anthropologist who lived in China in the 1980s, the murderous Mao Zedong is an example for Xi and even an idol for him.
“Mao said great chaos is needed to achieve great order in the world,” Mosher says.
