What is revealing about this is the fact that Trump is aligning with Islamist regimes (notably Muslim Brotherhood proxy Qatar) whose record on minorities—including Christians—is far worse from a MAGA evangelical's standpoint than India's is, yet Trump is hardly criticized for doing something Obama and Biden were rightly lambasted for, such as befriending Turkish-backed Qaida (HTS) rebels-turned-'leaders' in Syria.
So even "Christian" Americans, be they globalist or MAGA-oriented, really do not seem to care so much about the rights of minorities as much as they do about power politics and party loyalty, whether at home or abroad. Otherwise they would have made an issue of Trump emulating his Democratic predecessors in patronizing MB Islamists such as Qatar's or Türkiye's. And India's record on minorities is far superior to either of these.
I agree that Trump 2.0 is pretty much pivoting towards the Ummah at this point at the expense. I still believe that average MAGA care about Christian causes, but they're not all that well-informed and are therefore easily manipulated like in this case.
Trump's pivot toward Qatar et al. (the "Islamic NATO" nucleus) through the likes of Barrack or Witkoff is as well known to everyone as the record of these Islamist powers on minorities, notably during the "Arab Spring" proxy wars, so even MAGA has no excuse for being silent when Trump repeats the very policy his predecessors are rightly blamed for, some of which Trump initially promised to reverse during one or both of his terms.
Congressman Riley Moore should visit churches in China and talk to Chinese Christians in the US. I also question how many of these foreign missionaries are truly there for God's mission. Before 1949, China had benefited from Western missionaries, especially those from the US. The most famous record of the Nanjing Massacre was written by an American preacher in Nanjing during the time.
"The China Mirage" by James Bradley goes into some detail of the connection between American Methodists and Chiang Kai-Shek.
Turns out he took millions in dollars from them to print bibles in Chinese to "save on shipping costs."
I'm sure that had nothing to do with his sudden wealth. Nothing at all. /s
As for Indian NGOs and their foreign connections, someone once pointed out that we have more NGOs per 100k than doctors. Millions of dollars pouring in and creating havoc.
I believe what you described as related to Chiang-Kai-Shek is propaganda from CCP. However, the "truth" I thought I knew is not much better. Chiang had a "political marriage" with Madam Chiang precisely for her family fortune. Her father was a successful businessman in the US after coming to the US for studies. Her elder sister married Sun Yat-Sen (also evaluated by many as a "political marriage". Her younger sister married the son of another Chinese mogul in the US comparable to her father.
Yes, without such connections, there would not be a "China Lobby" in the US circa 1938-1940. Although US national strategies (and interests) dictated that the US took a neutral position, private donations from Chinese Americans and political pressure built from the protestant churches did impact US policies, from buying Chinese exports, allowing the establishment of the Flying Tigers, to gradually selling misc. strategic materials to China, etc. That was the darkest period of China's war against Japan, and the most important foreign aid was from the USSR. But once Germany invaded the USSR, the US took over that role and started to sanction Japanese trade in oil and steel.
Is it a personal imperfection for Chiang Kai-Shek to have a political marriage? That certainly is. And he has many other faults in his personality traits. BUT, without that political marriage circa 1934 (?) China would not have the US connection between the gap of German military assistance to China (up to early 1938) and the US official intervention (after Pearl Harbor). China was begging for help from the West since 1936 but got very little. No begging looks good. But without such tactics China could have been subdued by Japan.
Chiang Kai-Shek maintained that Christian facade until his death (at least many people in Taiwan and China believed that was only a facade) but that facade may have helped Taiwan to survive the difficult years of 1949-1959.
Personally, I have seen both sides of Christian Churches in Taiwan. I am not impressed. But then, quite a few people I respect did convert. YMMV.
I don't know enough about China to gauge what is propaganda and by whom.
I don't blindly believe a certain Italian (name escapes me at the moment) who lives in China. Pepe Escobar I discount completely. They're both over the top on their pro-China narratives.
But coming back to this book: it was recommended to me by a Chinese national who had worked in the US and then moved back to her homeland. It has a neutral tone. If I had time I'd go back and check its sources.
Yeah, Pepe is a problematic speaker, not only on China issues, but also on Russia/Ukraine issues. My confidence in Larry Johnson was dragged lower after the two teamed up. China, being a big country, does produce some outstanding minds even when they are young. Many of the cutting-edge Chinese dissidents possessed far better vision and insights than any person from Taiwan, AFAIK. So yes, sooner or later somebody born in China after 1949 will produce something really insightful, maybe starting from the one you have in hand.
The typical flaw of Chinese authors is that it is usually difficult for them to jump out of the ultra-nationalism that has brainwashed them since kindergarten. When Dr. Sun Yat-Sen talked about nationalism, he emphasized two key principles: (1) equal footing for domestic ethnics/tribes (China has not done well), and (2) cooperation with other people outside of China as long as they are willing to treat China as an equal peer. China has a slightly better scorecard here, to the point that victims of natural disasters in China complained that China sent far more money to help with the Venezuela earthquake than domestic floods. As usual, YMMV.
Trump 2.0 is clearly pivoting toward Pakistan right now, signing more favorable trade terms with the latter than India, despite Islamabad's regime having been installed by the same Democrats who are obstructing his every move.
(Trump is still keeping 10% or higher tolls on vital Indian commodities in spite of New Delhi having adopted 0% barriers on many U.S. goods.) Clearly Islamists are getting yet another blank cheque from D.C. for geopolitical aims.
Personally I welcome the US barriers and tariffs. I was part of several teams which worked on systems which were alternatives to US products from 1990 to 2001.
The innovation which those teams demonstrated was rendered useless when sanctions were lifted and my industry turned into outsourced contract work. Glad to have retired out of it.
The more the US tries to block China, the more innovation will come out of there.
Now India and China don't have a good border situation but we still do business with each other.
Evangelicals under Trump and Biden have been guilty of spreading lies about the CCP—even to the point of siding with Islamist separatism (the Turkestan Islamic Party [TIP], a Qaida organ tied to Turkey).
Adrian Zenz, a pro-Israel "Christian", singlehandedly spread rumors about CCP camps and Uighur sterilization in Xinjiang, just as other evangelicals blamed China for COVID-19, spurring Trump to sever his ties to Xi.
Notably Zenz' and TIP's narratives about Xinjiang converge, notwithstanding the irony of "anti-Muslim" Christians peddling al-Qaida propaganda and lionizing Muslim "victims" of China.
What is revealing about this is the fact that Trump is aligning with Islamist regimes (notably Muslim Brotherhood proxy Qatar) whose record on minorities—including Christians—is far worse from a MAGA evangelical's standpoint than India's is, yet Trump is hardly criticized for doing something Obama and Biden were rightly lambasted for, such as befriending Turkish-backed Qaida (HTS) rebels-turned-'leaders' in Syria.
So even "Christian" Americans, be they globalist or MAGA-oriented, really do not seem to care so much about the rights of minorities as much as they do about power politics and party loyalty, whether at home or abroad. Otherwise they would have made an issue of Trump emulating his Democratic predecessors in patronizing MB Islamists such as Qatar's or Türkiye's. And India's record on minorities is far superior to either of these.
I agree that Trump 2.0 is pretty much pivoting towards the Ummah at this point at the expense. I still believe that average MAGA care about Christian causes, but they're not all that well-informed and are therefore easily manipulated like in this case.
Trump's pivot toward Qatar et al. (the "Islamic NATO" nucleus) through the likes of Barrack or Witkoff is as well known to everyone as the record of these Islamist powers on minorities, notably during the "Arab Spring" proxy wars, so even MAGA has no excuse for being silent when Trump repeats the very policy his predecessors are rightly blamed for, some of which Trump initially promised to reverse during one or both of his terms.
The average frustrated MAGA is simply a cultist.
I agree. And I add: a dumb fanatic.
Congressman Riley Moore should visit churches in China and talk to Chinese Christians in the US. I also question how many of these foreign missionaries are truly there for God's mission. Before 1949, China had benefited from Western missionaries, especially those from the US. The most famous record of the Nanjing Massacre was written by an American preacher in Nanjing during the time.
"The China Mirage" by James Bradley goes into some detail of the connection between American Methodists and Chiang Kai-Shek.
Turns out he took millions in dollars from them to print bibles in Chinese to "save on shipping costs."
I'm sure that had nothing to do with his sudden wealth. Nothing at all. /s
As for Indian NGOs and their foreign connections, someone once pointed out that we have more NGOs per 100k than doctors. Millions of dollars pouring in and creating havoc.
I believe what you described as related to Chiang-Kai-Shek is propaganda from CCP. However, the "truth" I thought I knew is not much better. Chiang had a "political marriage" with Madam Chiang precisely for her family fortune. Her father was a successful businessman in the US after coming to the US for studies. Her elder sister married Sun Yat-Sen (also evaluated by many as a "political marriage". Her younger sister married the son of another Chinese mogul in the US comparable to her father.
Yes, without such connections, there would not be a "China Lobby" in the US circa 1938-1940. Although US national strategies (and interests) dictated that the US took a neutral position, private donations from Chinese Americans and political pressure built from the protestant churches did impact US policies, from buying Chinese exports, allowing the establishment of the Flying Tigers, to gradually selling misc. strategic materials to China, etc. That was the darkest period of China's war against Japan, and the most important foreign aid was from the USSR. But once Germany invaded the USSR, the US took over that role and started to sanction Japanese trade in oil and steel.
Is it a personal imperfection for Chiang Kai-Shek to have a political marriage? That certainly is. And he has many other faults in his personality traits. BUT, without that political marriage circa 1934 (?) China would not have the US connection between the gap of German military assistance to China (up to early 1938) and the US official intervention (after Pearl Harbor). China was begging for help from the West since 1936 but got very little. No begging looks good. But without such tactics China could have been subdued by Japan.
Chiang Kai-Shek maintained that Christian facade until his death (at least many people in Taiwan and China believed that was only a facade) but that facade may have helped Taiwan to survive the difficult years of 1949-1959.
Personally, I have seen both sides of Christian Churches in Taiwan. I am not impressed. But then, quite a few people I respect did convert. YMMV.
I don't know enough about China to gauge what is propaganda and by whom.
I don't blindly believe a certain Italian (name escapes me at the moment) who lives in China. Pepe Escobar I discount completely. They're both over the top on their pro-China narratives.
But coming back to this book: it was recommended to me by a Chinese national who had worked in the US and then moved back to her homeland. It has a neutral tone. If I had time I'd go back and check its sources.
Yeah, Pepe is a problematic speaker, not only on China issues, but also on Russia/Ukraine issues. My confidence in Larry Johnson was dragged lower after the two teamed up. China, being a big country, does produce some outstanding minds even when they are young. Many of the cutting-edge Chinese dissidents possessed far better vision and insights than any person from Taiwan, AFAIK. So yes, sooner or later somebody born in China after 1949 will produce something really insightful, maybe starting from the one you have in hand.
The typical flaw of Chinese authors is that it is usually difficult for them to jump out of the ultra-nationalism that has brainwashed them since kindergarten. When Dr. Sun Yat-Sen talked about nationalism, he emphasized two key principles: (1) equal footing for domestic ethnics/tribes (China has not done well), and (2) cooperation with other people outside of China as long as they are willing to treat China as an equal peer. China has a slightly better scorecard here, to the point that victims of natural disasters in China complained that China sent far more money to help with the Venezuela earthquake than domestic floods. As usual, YMMV.
Trump 2.0 is clearly pivoting toward Pakistan right now, signing more favorable trade terms with the latter than India, despite Islamabad's regime having been installed by the same Democrats who are obstructing his every move.
(Trump is still keeping 10% or higher tolls on vital Indian commodities in spite of New Delhi having adopted 0% barriers on many U.S. goods.) Clearly Islamists are getting yet another blank cheque from D.C. for geopolitical aims.
Personally I welcome the US barriers and tariffs. I was part of several teams which worked on systems which were alternatives to US products from 1990 to 2001.
The innovation which those teams demonstrated was rendered useless when sanctions were lifted and my industry turned into outsourced contract work. Glad to have retired out of it.
The more the US tries to block China, the more innovation will come out of there.
Now India and China don't have a good border situation but we still do business with each other.
Evangelicals under Trump and Biden have been guilty of spreading lies about the CCP—even to the point of siding with Islamist separatism (the Turkestan Islamic Party [TIP], a Qaida organ tied to Turkey).
Adrian Zenz, a pro-Israel "Christian", singlehandedly spread rumors about CCP camps and Uighur sterilization in Xinjiang, just as other evangelicals blamed China for COVID-19, spurring Trump to sever his ties to Xi.
Notably Zenz' and TIP's narratives about Xinjiang converge, notwithstanding the irony of "anti-Muslim" Christians peddling al-Qaida propaganda and lionizing Muslim "victims" of China.