Remember those little red books?
For many years Red China has had trouble winning over the Muslim Uighur minority of Xinjiang Province, in the West. Now they’re trying to club them into submission.
A citizen of Kazakhstan told his horror story to the Associated Press (https://apnews.com/6e151296fb194f85ba69a8babd972e4b/Chinese-mass-indoctrination-camps-evoke-Cultural-Revolution). He was seized for no reason he ever came to know, detained and tormented for eight months, and just as suddenly released, again with no reason given. His story makes horrendous reading.
Chinese authorities say “Religion is dangerous”–unless it’s their own religion of atheism–and coerced Muslim detainees “to disavow their Islamic beliefs, criticize themselves and their loved ones and give thanks to the ruling Communist Party.” Also on the menu is solitary confinement, beatings, and deprivation of food, with a lot of other tortures, too. It’s their way, they say, of fighting Islamic extremism. It seems a lot of Uighurs don’t want to be part of China, and have tried to do something about it. So a lot of them are being hauled into, in the words of an American commission, “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.” A Turkish news agency estimates almost 900,000 Uighurs in detention.
Chinese authorities call it “transformation through education”–that sounds uncomfortably familiar–and hail it as “a permanent cure.”
The detention and the coercive techniques applied, especially the psychological torture, recall the Great Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, under the dictatorship of Mao Tse-tung, history’s most prolific mass murderer. Not content with simply killing people, Mao tried to get their minds right–well, what he called “right.”
As the people of this fallen world have known for thousands of years, when you’re a weak nation conquered by a stronger nation, your troubles have only just begun. The native population of Xinjiang is learning that lesson the hard way.
And so will we, if the anti-Christian Left ever has its way with us.
The plot thickens.
From the looks of things, we’re almost there.
Christian radio shows I listen to say Christianity is experiencing a revival in China. It is all underground like in early Roman days. Let us remember these persecuted saints in our prayers.
That’s incorrect- The Communist State has begun promoting Christianity, with the understanding that you can only do it openly if your church gets the same “permits” and “permission” from the “government.” I just watched a long interview on TV from a Chinese priest who was discussing this new development. The government actually paid for much of the construction of his church. Hmm I wonder how well this will work out. I bet the Pope didn’t get where he is today by having the Chinese government build the Vatican for him.
The Chicoms assiduously persecuted Christians for years, without being able to stop the Church from growing; so now they try to own it. If you can’t beat ’em, own ’em. Of course, it’s the official government-approved “church” that gets promoted.
Meanwhile, there are a lot more Christians in China than there are Uighurs, so locking them all up is probably out of the question.
Good point Lee. I actually thought about you whilst watching this documentary. The Chinese pastor they were interviewing seemed quite a canny chap to me. He was under no illusions about any strings the government might attach to their largess, but he viewed this as a small price to pay for a newly built church and freedom of Christian congregation. The way it was before they had to remain underground. Christianity didn’t get where it was today be remaining underground.
Actually, it kind of did!
Actually, it kind of did! lol touche!!