RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.settimananews.it/religioni/millions-of-shadows-of-christians-china/

They may number even two or three hundred million, and are growing fast. They are the self-styled Christians in China, who don’t clearly know what they are.

All read the Bible; some claim to be related to Christ, like Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the destructive Taiping Rebellion in the 19th century, which killed 20% of the Chinese population. Most add to the Bible and the Gospels their own tracts, drawing explanations from Buddhist or Taoist traditions. Lots claim to have dreams and visions of God and the apostles, and thus cure people of their ailments for free or small donations, whereas state hospitals charge stiff bills for any patient.

Some Chinese officials argue they can’t be regarded as Christians at all, but just the latest wave of the centuries-old Chinese syncretic tradition of pulling every faith and belief under one roof. But the new styled Chinese Christians claim to be so, perhaps in part because the label brings with it a more tolerant approach from the authorities, who are not against the spread of Buddhism and Christianity, but take much harsher measures against Islam, for fear of Muslim extremists.

In the past syncretism occurred over a period of 500–600 years to Buddhism, which became sinicized by drawing on homegrown Taoism since the first century AD. The same is happening now in China with Christianity; only the time frame is much shorter. Christianity went from about 2–3% of the total population in the late 1990s to presently being possibly as much as 20–30% of the population. The popularity of the Pope is apparently also helping all of this.

Many people hear about the Pope and the Catholic Church and claim to be Catholic, although they may have never attended Catholic mass.

https://www.city-journal.org/html/why-china-cant-afford-trade-war-15951.html

China and the United States have agreed not to impose tariffs on one another—that is, not to engage in a trade war—at least while they negotiate a trade settlement. If the White House is to be believed, China has agreed to increase “significantly” its purchases of American goods, especially agricultural products. This is welcome news: China-U.S. trade, for all the restrictions and conditions placed on it (mostly by Beijing), reflects an economically symbiotic relationship. A trade war would damage both countries. But Chinese concessions up front are also significant because tacitly they acknowledge weakness, even as China tries to present an image of trading dominance.

Beijing’s clearest difficulty lies in its export-oriented growth model, which many in the West erroneously see as a strength. Because China overemphasizes manufacturing, it produces surpluses that get wasted unless its state-owned firms can sell them. Without buyers, stacks of rebar, jet engines, and the like will rust in factory yards, and iPhones and millions of team-logo t-shirts pose a storage problem. The structure depends on prosperity elsewhere to absorb Chinese products. Reports on China’s recent economic growth surge underscore this dependency: even China’s own statistical bureau pointed to the acceleration of growth in the United States and Europe as the cause of its spurt.

Observers who fear Chinese manufacturing capacity point to the West’s vulnerability in this area. Because the United States and other developed economies have lost so much productive power to China, they would face shortages should Beijing decide to withhold supplies. Chinese refusal to export its products would hurt the West, perhaps even precipitating a recession, but inflicting this pain would come at great cost to China. Its export-oriented manufacturing would stagnate, and so, accordingly, would its export-dependent economy. Socially, China would suffer as well. Beijing fears a recurrence of the riots that rocked the nation during the great recession of 2008-09.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nicaraguas-political-crisis-descends-into-dark-days-1528235963

MANAGUA, Nicaragua—A surge of violence has snuffed out economic activity and dimmed prospects to peacefully resolve a political crisis here that began as a protest against tax increases and turned into a revolt against Nicaragua’s longtime leader Daniel Ortega.

Since mid-April, more than 100 people have been killed in confrontations with police during mass protests and what human-rights groups say are paramilitary gangs aligned with Mr. Ortega’s government.

Among them were 15 people killed at a peaceful Mother’s Day protest march last month in Managua and 11 people by paramilitary groups and police in the predominantly indigenous city of Masaya this past weekend, including a 15-year-old protester who witnesses say was executed by a policewoman.

On Tuesday, violence flared in the quaint colonial city of Granada, home to hundreds of American retirees.

“We are going through very dark days,” said Humberto Belli, a former education minister. “The people are out in the street demanding that Ortega leave, but he has shown an unexpected ability to kill. We see more blood every day—three, four, five people killed on a daily basis. This has no end.”

The Organization of American States on Tuesday approved a mildly worded resolution calling for an immediate end of the violence and asking all parties to participate in peaceful dialogue. The resolution, co-sponsored by the U.S. and Nicaragua, was much weaker than declarations made Monday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who accused Nicaraguan police and armed pro-government groups of killing dozens of protesters.