Jiang interviews Poythress

"Vern Poythress on the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, and Revelation with Chinese Subtitles"

Tiananmen square commemoration

Today is the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen square massacre. Hong Kong has been holding annual vigils to commemorate the victims massacred by China for 30 years.

However, for the first time since Hong Kong's handover to China, China has banned Hong Kongers from holding vigils under pain of imprisonment and potentially death. Indeed, Hong Kong has effectively lost its democracy and is under the control of China today, due to the new "security law". No more "one country, two systems"; now it's "one country, one system". It's all communist China. Yet Hong Kongers still came out in droves to commemorate Tiananmen square. This is real protest in the face of a totalitarian regime.

How many rioters (including Antifa) would dare to come out in "protest" if they didn't live in a free and democratic society but instead lived under the thumb of a nation like China? How many rioters would dare to come out in "protest" if they were essentially weaponless (no viable access to weapons like guns and knives) and knew the slightest hint of physical resistance or opposition could result in their deaths? Just how "brave" or "courageous" is Antifa when it costs them so very little to "protest" in comparison to Hong Kongers? (I might not make much of this comparison, but I've noticed some or many on the left comparing their "fight" with what happened at Tiananmen square, our government with communist China, and so on.)

31 years of commemoration.

photo: @appledaily_hk

#June4 #TiananmenSquareMassacre pic.twitter.com/5PS28EQI7d

— Alex Lam 林偉聰 (@lwcalex) June 4, 2020

America's Tiananmen square

(Thanks to Jitt Teng for helping restore this post!)

I notice some people are comparing the riots to Tiananmen square. I suppose the idea is Trump's administration, the military, and the police are akin to the communist Chinese government, while the "protesters" are akin to the democracy-loving Chinese people. I guess George Floyd is Tank Man.

1. The Chinese people couldn't and didn't fight back against their government. Rather, the communists government massacred the people. Men, women, and yes even children were murdered. They were gunned down. Tanks rolled over them. Tiananmen square literally ran with blood. The entire area was aggressively "cleansed" by an army group that was notoriously vicious. It was called upon by the CCP leaders precisely because the army group was known to be so vicious.

2. By contrast, protesters are allowed to protest. The Trump administration hasn't silenced their voice. If anyone wants to see silence, then consider how China has ended Hong Kong's democracy just days ago. And consider what's still happening in Hong Kong:

It starts; so soon. For the first time in 30 years, Hong Kong authorities denied permission to hold the #TiananmenVigil. If there is any doubt about Beijing’s intent, it is to deny Hong Kongers a voice and a choice, making them the same as mainlanders. So much for two systems.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) June 2, 2020

Trump hasn't unilaterally sent in the US military. And the US military certainly hasn't massacred anyone.

3. No doubt police brutality is a legitimate concern. It should be dealt with. But how is "protesting" by rioting helping deal with police brutality? The rioters are behaving anything but peacefully. They're looting stores, burning down buildings, and violently attacking innocents. They're shooting police officers (e.g. here, here).

4. I don't know if rioters in general have any sort of ideology. (However, I think organized groups like Antifa do have an ideology.) At the very least, rioters aren't respecting democracy. In fact, I suspect many if not most rioters are ignorant about our system of government. That's quite unlike the student-led protests at Tiananmen square. Many of these students were well-versed in the intellectual history of democracy. Many of them could argue for democracy, but how many rioters have ever read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, even some of the Federalist papers?

5. If anything, the rioters seem to want anarchy. Evidently they want to live out Alan Moore's twisted vision in V for Vendetta and Watchmen.

6. Some intellectuals are defending the riots. However, as George Orwell said: "Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them".

The Navy SEAL that killed Osama bin Laden may have a truer perspective when he calls the protesters "terrorists".

7. It looks like the left is actively supporting and perhaps inciting rioters like Antifa (e.g. here, here). If so, I presume the short-term goal is to bring down Trump. To make his administration seem impotent to do anything.

Yet leftist politicians like Biden may be playing with fire. If they start a revolution, the revolution may not necessarily end with them in charge (e.g. here, here). Consider whether Bernie bros ever wanted Biden. Even Robespierre the guillotiner was guillotined.

"U.S. Says Hong Kong’s Autonomy Is Gone"

The Trump administration said it could no longer certify Hong Kong’s political autonomy from China, a move that could trigger sanctions and have far-reaching consequences on the former British colony’s special trading status with the U.S.

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced the decision Wednesday, a week after the government in Beijing declared its intention to pass a national security law curtailing the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong citizens.

“Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997,” Pompeo said in a statement. “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground.”

(Source)

One country, two systems

Despite coronavirus restrictions, thousands in Hong Kong protesting because Hong Kong could effectively lose its democracy and be fully absorbed into communist China when the national security law passes.

The anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre is coming up too. Hong Kong has always gathered each year to commemorate the fallen in the Tiananmen Square massacre, but if Hong Kong loses its democracy, then China likely won't allow Hong Kong to do so anymore. It's forbidden to commemorate the fallen in the Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

Rally Live:
Sea of people reappeared in Hong Kong to protest the upcoming National Security Law which endanger the freedom and safety of Hong Kong people.#HongKong#Protest pic.twitter.com/QjhXHX18MQ

— Nathan Law 羅冠聰 😷 (@nathanlawkc) May 24, 2020

Hong Kongers in Causeway Bay holding up five fingers for the five demands. Thousands of ppl gathering around (photo: colleague Donny Kwok) pic.twitter.com/MkTSLABFZ0

— Pak Yiu (@pakwayne) May 24, 2020

Hong Kong independence flags waving, protesters chanting "Hong Kong Independence, the only way out" pic.twitter.com/pSJT5LntwD

— Pak Yiu (@pakwayne) May 24, 2020

China:
Threaten Taiwan invasion
Shred Hong Kong agreement
Invade India
Punitive tariffs on Australia
Arm Burmese rebels
Hack US corona research
Militarizing South China Sea

DC China's think tanks:
If only we had any clue as to Chinese intention and reciprocity. Any at all.

— Anonymous Balding 大老板 (@BaldingsWorld) May 23, 2020

The fate of democracy in Asia

At midnight tonight, Hong Kong will practically be fully absorbed into the PRC 27 years early.

The laws of the PRC will (from midnight tonight) also apply to Hong Kong.

"One country, Two systems" is over, and with it you can be prosecuted for talking out against the CCP.

— Pog 🇭🇰 (@Achuuvements) May 21, 2020

Just messaged my parents in Taiwan, asking whether people care about the national security law in HK. They said that every single channel is talking about it non stop.

This is about more than just HK, it's about the fate of democracy in Asia as a whole.

— Gene Lin 林靖 (@lin_gene) May 22, 2020

If China succeeds here with no Western pushback, Taiwan is next. China will take that as a sign the West isn't willing to defend its interests https://t.co/3hFNdsob5H

— Lucas Carson (@eklu65) May 23, 2020

The death of democracy in Hong Kong?

The Communist Party of China has been busy with Hong Kong during the pandemic:

For one thing, China arrested leaders of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement last month.

Also, not many hours ago, Hong Kong's democratically-elected council has been forcibly removed and a new pro-communist chairman "voted" in.

"Ask China"

1. It's obvious the reporter was asking Trump a loaded question. Baiting Trump. Of course, the mainstream media doesn't focus on her loaded question. Just Trump's response.

2. I bet Trump would have said "ask China" regardless of the reporter's race/ethnicity.

3. Liberals are saying this isn't an isolated incident. They're saying Trump has a "pattern". However, even if (arguendo) that were true, that doesn't mean it's true in this case.

Also, if we want to talk about "patterns", then what about the "pattern" of liberals always getting so easily triggered and playing the victim?

4. Many people are saying Trump is thin-skinned. That he shouldn't have walked out on the press conference. Sure, Trump is thin-skinned. However, it's also true much of the media is out to get Trump. Gotcha journalism and the like. It's hardly a mystery why Trump would walk out. And I wouldn't blame him for walking out on these kind of people.

Likewise, what about the reporter and mainstream media being thin-skinned too? They're so touchy by assuming the president saying "ask China" to an Asian-American reporter must be due to racism.

5. Not to mention the reporter's virtue signaling by asking the question she asked. However, if she and other reporters are just going to go around self-righteously or sanctimoniously congratulating one another for asking these sorts of lame questions, then what's the point of the press conference? The press conference is a waste of time for Trump. Why shouldn't he walk out? He has more important things to do as the president.

Chinese Health Organization

BREAKING: Japanese Vice PM says the @WHO should be renamed "Chinese Health Organization, Taro slammed the WHO for reciting the Chinese talking points with regards to #COVID19, and insisted that the Corona virus should be called the Wuhan virus. pic.twitter.com/GuuDmqo0c0

— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) April 2, 2020

By the way, in addition to how China has been treating Taiwan, let's not forget how China has been treating Hong Kong, which I've posted about in the past.

Also, I think we should stop funding the WHO.

Kowtowing to China

I believe the person interviewed is Bruce Aylward. Of course, everyone knows China is a communist regime led by autocrats who have no problem using heavy-handed, draconian, and even bloody measures against their own people. By contrast, Taiwan is a free and democratic nation like South Korea and like Hong Kong should be.

Wait is this real? @WHO or I mean WHAT is going on? Is a rep from the World Health Organization really pretending to not hear a question about Taiwan’s status, then ending the call, then sidestepping the question when called back - and then ending the call abruptly? https://t.co/MkgVS2hKsk

— Ramy Inocencio 英若明 (@RamyInocencio) March 28, 2020

Also, the role of conservative media in this story:

That interview with Dr. Alyward of WHO is a breathtaking show of just how much our global institutions are captured and compromised.

I want to highlight why the conservative media ecosystem is important, even if you don't agree with their politics. pic.twitter.com/eJitJ2GEhS

— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) March 28, 2020

Hours after the interview went viral on Twitter, the only media reporting on it was @Fox, @DailyCaller, @TheBlaze, etc.

The mentions of Dr. Alyward by NYT, & WaPo were weeks ago.

In a world without the former, this could've slipped off the radar as quickly as it appeared.

— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) March 28, 2020

As a result of this media coverage, WHO quietly scrubbed Dr. Alyward's name from their official website (luckily there are archives).

Liberals need to see the vital role even explicitly right-wing media plays. It could not be clearer.

The WHO has been thoroughly exposed.

— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) March 28, 2020

The role of atheism in the pandemic

1. What does atheism have to do with the pandemic? I thought you'd never ask!

The regime in Red China takes the lion's share of the blame for the pandemic. It has systematically bungled the crisis. Part of this is due to a fanatical, paranoid concern to maintain total social control. 

2 But there's a theological element has well. It cuts against the grain of human nature to admit error, much less wrongdoing. You lose face when you do that. In fact, it can be hard for people to admit to themselves that they are morally flawed and guilty of moral failure, much less admit that to others. 

As I've noted in the past, one of the liberating side-effects of Christianity is that it free us to admit error and wrongdoing. If everyone is a sinner, if Christ redeemed you, if God forgave you, then it's safe to admit error and wrongdoing. That lowers our natural defensiveness. We have nothing much to lose by coming clean. 

But atheists in the Communist regime don't have that insulation. Saving face is all-important, no matter the harm to others.

3. There's also the fact that if you're a consistent atheist, life is cheap. You may value your own life, but other human beings are disposable. What does the death toll amount to in a nation with a population the size of China? Unless you have reason to believe each human life is important, why should the regime care about the death of so many Chinese? Individual lives are so expendable and replaceable. Like weeds. 

Chinese Christian fiction

From a 2004 article. It would be interested to see an up-to-date list:

Among writers in China, whose Marxist grand narrative has also stuttered to a stop, many contemporary novelists have identified openly with religious story, now not only Confucian or Buddhist but also the Christian grand narrative. (Among the prominent Christian novelists are Lao She, Xu Dishan, Bing Xing, and Mu Dan.) There is even a new literary style called sheng jing ti ("biblical"), whose characteristics are described as "objective, truthful, terse" (Aikman 254).
https://www.christianityandliterature.com/David-Jeffrey

Red China virus

A kerfuffle has arisen over what to call the virus. I've been calling it the Coronavirus because it's a neutral designation, and one of the first quasi-official designations. If you want to be understood, you generally go with common, recognizable designations. That label has been popularized, and I have no overriding reason not to use it.

More pedantic is COVID-19. Trump has taken to calling it the Chinese virus to shine attention on the regime.  

I'd avoid that designation because it's too generic. However, there's nothing new about naming a disease in association with a particular region of origin, viz. German measles, Spanish influenza, Ebola, West Nile virus, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Cf. https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/13/17-diseases-named-after-places-or-people/

Some people call it the Wuhan virus, which is more accurate but obscure, unless you're a geography buff. 

If I wanted to use an alternate designation, I'd dub it the Red China virus (or Chinese gov't virus) due to the extensive complicity of the Communist regime in contributing this disaster. However, "Red China" has Cold War connotations that will be lost on anyone younger than a Baby Boomer.  

A coronavirus vaccine on the horizon?

Just yesterday news broke about a company called Moderna (working in conjunction with our government) that's rapidly developing a novel coronavirus vaccine. My thoughts:

1. The fact that Moderna is going to phase 1 trials in approximately 3 months of obtaining the coronavirus' genetic sequence is super fast. Perhaps a record. By contrast, SARS took around 20 months before it got to this point.

2. It looks like the phase 1 trials are set to begin in April. They'll occur at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) facilities in Bethesda, MD. This will involve around 20+ volunteers.

If these trials are successful, they'll move onto phase 2 trials. This would involve hundreds of participants.

Phase 3 trials would involve hundreds to thousands of participants.

Given the coronavirus epidemic, which is already verging on a pandemic, it's quite possible the gov't will fast track the trials.

3. In any case, I think it would still take at least half a year from April (and that'd be fast!) before a vaccine could be publicly available. So, even if (big if at this point) the trials are successful, that could still mean a vaccine won't be out until late 2020 or early 2021 at best.

And most likely health care professionals will get it before the general public.

4. How do vaccines work? Let's consider what normally happens. This will be simplified, but I can get into technical details if needed. Scientists will take a weakened or dead virus, inject it into our bodies so that it provokes an immune response from our immune system. That is, our immune system will take the virus, flag it, then produce antibodies against it. That's what normally happens.

However, Moderna is trying something different. Scientists at Moderna are instead injecting a sequence of foreign genetic material (mRNA) directly into certain immune system cells of our body. This (eventually) should provoke these immune cells to develop antibodies. It's a more direct approach because it bypasses the initial events.

5. Will it work? Who knows. It's never been done before. There could be significant side effects. The clinical trials will tell us in time.

6. By the way, the government (like the NIAID) often asks for the help of and even contracts with private companies (like Moderna) to help with vaccines in epidemics. They can't do it themselves. This is for vaccine development as well as vaccine production if development is successful. Something to keep in mind when you hear about the evils of private capitalist companies and so on.

Diane Poythress on the church in China

Diane Poythress discusses her perspective on Christians in China.

Plagues, locusts, and floods

The following is an excerpt from an email from someone named Wyoming Doc who is married to a Chinese woman. Wyoming Doc frequents Rod Dreher's weblog.

I have not been able to comfort my wife in some time. I have never seen her like this. She is a profoundly educated and worldly-wise woman. However, she has now reverted to her people’s former religion of Zen Buddhism – in a way that I find beautiful and scary at the same time. Her grandmother made sure she and her siblings knew their old ways, even in the Maoist China in which she grew up.

She has made from scratch these beautiful garments for herself and our kids. She calls them “mercy garments” — I get the feeling it is something like our version of “sackcloth and ashes”. When this all started, she looked me right in the eye and said, “We Chinese have forgotten our old traditions and our blessed ancestors. They are now telling us that they have not forgotten us.” She has constructed a Buddhist shrine in our front room – pic enclosed – and every evening it is covered in votive candles – and she and the kids bow and perform rituals, and chant. It is like Gregorian chant – but a bit different.

This weekend, I saw the look from the abyss in her eyes once again. If you recall, when her fortune teller wrote her last fall, he stated that the plague would begin in the winter and that Lunar New Year would not be celebrated. The next thing he said would happen would be the complete destruction of the crops — and this would be accomplished with locusts.

You can only imagine the look in her eyes – and the gushing of tears – when Mandarin TV announced that the locust swarms from Africa had arrived in Xinjiang, were gathering strength, and had not been this bad in decades.

[Rod Dreher: The locusts really are there. Here’s today’s agricultural news.]

The Industrial Heartland is now on its knees. If this locust plague begins to spread from Xinjiang into Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and Sichuan, that would put the Chinese breadbasket on its knees. That is where all the rice and wheat and other grains is grown. My wife’s fortuneteller by the way, stated that after the crops were ruined in the spring, the flooding would begin in the summer.

Again, my wife is a highly educated woman — a degree from their premier university — and up until now has been very secular in her life. I have this feeling that if my wife is behaving this way, it is probably going on all over China.

What is that going to mean for Xi Jinping and the People’s Republic? What would happen in America if large parts of the “Tribulation meme” inexplicably started to come true — what would that do to our cultural and civic life?

Now that China is the 2nd largest economy in the world – what effect will be had when things start to crater? What would the world be like with 1.5 billion Chinese in rebellion or even a Civil War?

[Rod Dreher: I remind you that Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, is one of the places in China where the persecution of Christians by the Communist regime was most severe...This could be a turning point in Chinese history. The early church gained respect and affection among the Romans in part because of the compassion its members showed the sick and dying during a plague time.]

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/camus-church-china-the-plague-covid19

Is China at breaking point?

[A commenter named Wyoming Doc:] I pray for my wife – all the time. This has been incredibly hard on our family. But we will make it. What I can also tell you – based on my wife’s multiple conversations with friends back home – is that this is really beginning to stir the hearts and minds of the Chinese people. Thoughts about Xi Xinping that would have been never thought to say out loud are being said now – and the whole country seems to be galvanizing around the fact that they have been seriously let down by the Communist Party. I am not sure what will come of that – but this could not have happened at a worse time for Xi – the Hong Kong fiasco – the pork virus disaster – and the trade war with the USA – and now this – the country will soon be at the breaking point.

[A commenter named Alec:] It’s ridiculous. I’m an American living in Shanghai who just traveled across China for the New Year (to Changsha, in Hunan) and have seen nothing like this man’s relatives are breathlessly reporting. I just got back from Starbucks here in Shanghai where I did some work, and though everyone is wearing masks shops are still open and no freedom of movement is curtailed. This article is highly irresponsible.

(Source)

1. I suspect one reason Shanghai and Beijing aren't as hard hit by the coronavirus is because they're farther away from central China where Wuhan is, in a country which has severely restricted travel. Also, I think it's due to the fact that the Communist Party of China (CPC) has involuntarily moved tons of doctors, nurses, and other health staff from various cities in China to Beijing and Shanghai which are their wealthiest cities. If these cities collapse, if things deteriorate enough, the CPC could collapse too.

2. Here's a dilemma. Should one hope China obtains relief from the coronavirus? Or should one hope the coronavirus overwhelms China so much that it ultimately leads to the collapse of the CPC and presumably usher in something better (it's hard to imagine much worse than the CPC)? Perhaps even some kind of representative democracy? I pray for those who are Christians in China and those who will become Christians in China.

Parasite review

(No significant spoilers except in the very last paragraph.)

The film Parasite won the Oscar for Best Picture. It was the first foreign film to have ever done so. It's a South Korean film.

The premise is a poor and unemployed family consisting of a father, a mother, a teenage son, and a teenage daughter end up conning and weaseling themselves into working for a rich family. The father serves as their limo driver, the mother as their house maid, the son as an English tutor for the rich family's daughter, and the daughter as the rich family's youngest son's art therapist. They forged documents to pretend like they have college degrees and work experiences they don't. The rest of the film unfolds from this setup.

I think one could evaluate the film on at least three different levels: a thriller with some dark comedic elements, a critique of "crazy rich" Asian culture, and social commentary (if not metaphor) about contemporary class warfare. Let's consider each of these.

Behold the beauty of atheism

See how an atheist regime deals with an epidemic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJTDeh88hww

https://twitter.com/EpochTimesChina/status/1227281259853950977

Traditionally, Christians founded the hospitals. Caring for the sick was very hazardous before the advent of antibiotics and antivirals since the caretaker could easily become infected and die from the same contagious disease. It takes faith and courage to care for patients with a life-threatening disease if that's life-threatening to the caregiver. Whether you're prepared to risk your own life to nurse others back to health depends in part on whether you think this life is all there is. This is an acid test of atheism. 

Due to sin, there are cowardly Christians. Due to common grace, there are courageous atheists. But I'm remarking on the logical outworking of competing worldviews. This is the same regime that engages in involuntary organ harvesting. 

Chinese organ-harvesting

Communist Chinese organ-harvesting is a diabolical, but clarifying illustration of consistent atheism. Human beings are just meat machines with an expiration date, manufactured other meat machines. The stronger machines strip the weaker machines for spare parts. There is no good or evil, right or wrong, just the powerful and the powerless. Unsentimental atheism.