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Despite U.S. military pivot to Africa, China offers reasons for optimism

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Messenger: Nesta1 Sent: 9/11/2018 1:06:59 PM
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In general, there is so little understanding in the West about the Chinese history and culture that the social values of the Chinese are very misunderstood – they are equated with Western values, which is incorrect. This is why an understanding of History is essential. It’s essential for an African, essential for a Rasta, essential for an American – “don’t forget your history” is more than just a hollow lyric without meaning in Bob Marley’s “Rat Race”.

We are One People and we cannot understand who we are and our different parts without knowing our history.

In the 15th century under the Ming Dynasty China had the most powerful navy on earth. No country could challenge it and it could have easily set out to colonize distant lands throughout Eurasia and Africa for the purposes of extracting wealth from them. But that’s not what was done. Under the command of Admiral Zheng He, the mighty Chinese navy made several incredible voyages. During some of these expeditions the Chinese ships visited Africa along the coast of what is now Somalia and Kenya. The ships were huge. In those days, Europe had nothing so enormous at its disposal. Chinese ships were armed against the pirates, but they mainly traveled with scribes, scholars, doctors and researchers.

When they reached the African shore, they made contacts with the locals. They studied each other, exchanged gifts (some Chinese pottery and ceramics are still being found near the island of Lamu).

There was not much common ground between those two cultures, at that time. The Chinese scribes recorded: “This is not yet right time for permanent contact”. They left gifts on the shore, and sailed home. Nobody died. Nobody was “converted”. No one was raped. African land still belonged to Africans. African people were free to do what they chose. Later the Westerners arrived from Europe and the rest is history well known to most RastafarI.

The point is that ancient and modern China could not be more radically different than the West. Life, the economy and development all revolved around a large central government, headed by the emperor. Instead of being based on trade and commerce, China’s economy has always been founded on agricultural production and the harvests were and still are largely sold to the state. Why? Because the government is expected to maintain the Heavenly Mandate, which means making sure that all of the citizens have enough to eat. Therefore, farmers always knew that the grain they grew could very easily end up in another part of China, because of distant droughts. This whole idea of central planning extended to flood control. Communities in one area of China would be tasked to build dams or canals, not to help reduce flood risk for themselves, but for other citizens far away, downstream, all for the collective good. The Chinese emperor ruled over an enormous empire and keeping it unified and prosperous was the focus, not external exploitation.

The Chinese socialist (or call it Communist) system clearly has its roots in China’s ancient history. It is based on sharing and cooperation, on solidarity and harmony.

When the West succeeds in something, it feels that it has “won”. It drives the banner pole into the earth, gets some fermented beverages to celebrate, and feels superior, unique, exceptional.

China thinks differently: “if our neighbors are doing well and are at peace, then China will prosper too, and will enjoy peace. We can trade, we can visit each other, exchange ideas.”

The goals of China's interactions with Africans cannot be understood through the lens of Western imperialism and/or interventionism. They have to be understood through the lens of Chinese culture, history and values. This is the overarching message of my posts on this topic.






Messenger: Hemphill Sent: 9/12/2018 12:32:50 PM
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Are you able to comprehend how everything you say about the west, and everything you dont say about China or Islam, is a product of subliminal mental programming from babylon? Do you understand that the babylon geopolitical system cannot function without toppling the 'west' and erasing the rugged individualism and inalienable rights that the USA established? Do you know that the hatred for the USA that has emerged is a designed plan by ruling eugenicists? We can go tit for tat on this and that for days.. The fact is, no country, no nation, no culture has ever been perfect.. There is injustice everywhere.. But people only focus on America or the 'west' and White people.. People who buy into this mental programming never criticise islam, China, Communism, socialism, or Balck and Brown downpressers.. Ever.. Its only White people, its only America.. Kill it!!!

Yes sir, this is what is happening and yoy have shown to be in that boat.. They hide under 'inclusivity and tolerance' yet harbor the most vile hatred and bigotry..

Burn it out! Leave her!

There is good everywhere, there is evil everywhere.. But people like you only see the 'west', Christianity, and White people as being bad... Where is the balance?


Messenger: Nesta1 Sent: 9/12/2018 1:41:42 PM
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REFLECTIONS ON MY EXPERIENCE WITH CHRISTIANS IN CHINA

In my travels through China, i’ve never come across a RastafarI (or at least not someone who openly professed to me to be one). i&I did have opportunities to interact with wonderful Chinese Christians, so for me it was no problem -- I just spoke of “His Majesty” and we were mostly on the same page. The post in this thread about “burning Bibles” in China reminded me of these delightful encounters so I reflected back upon them a bit more in order to write this.

It’s important to understand that the Chinese government doesn’t really concern itself with which God Chinese individuals choose to worship, nor does it object to small groups of people worshipping Christ together. This is what our Chinese Christian friends told us when we first met them (and have reaffirmed this recently) in response to my questions about China’s constitutional right to freedom of religion. This absence of a policy of “official repression” of individuals because of their choice to practice Christianity seems to be confirmed by some Western sources also. Economist-editor John Micklethwait of Bloomberg News states:

“The rules within China basically say when you get to 25 people; no [Christian house church] meeting can go beyond 25 people without government approval. So you have 25 people in a house church. When it gets to 27 or 28 members, the church, because of that rule, is forced to split. And because it’s forced to split, it grows. So immediately you get two groups of 12 who are out there looking for more people. So ironically the very rules the Chinese have introduced turn out to be the very things that make the religion grow as fast as it does.”

So this is interesting. When you think about China, like many other countries targeted by Washington as official “adversaries”, it has a VERY REAL external threat always trying to infiltrate the country, foment civil unrest, and subvert the People’s government. U.S. government organizations like the CIA and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) spend literally billions of dollars (with a “B”) every year trying to subvert “adversarial” governments, including China’s, which the U.S. aims to ultimately dominate politically, militarily, and economically.

China’s government is very well aware that Christianity has been ‘weaponized’ both historically and in recent times by Western imperialists, and successfully used to set up horribly brutal and exploitive colonial systems. The Catholic Church’s permeation throughout, and extraction of vast quantities of wealth from, the countries of Latin America (and even the Philippines) are prime examples.

China’s grass roots Boxer Rebellion from 1899 to 1901 was motivated by popular opposition to Western imperialism and Christian missionary activity (e.g., the Chinese understood the Catholic Church to be highly interested in acquisition of agricultural land, extraction of tributes, and control over local political and economic issues). Obviously this rebellion had nothing to do with any Chinese government policy of religious repression.

Just as the U.S. government will not permit religious groups in the United States to assemble and practice religion with the perceived aim of subverting the government (e.g., the Branch Davidians), the Chinese government will not allow Christianity to be used to subvert the People’s Republic. But because the constitution of China guarantees the right to practice “normal religious activities”, people are not persecuted, as an official policy, for merely believing in Christianity, studying the Bible or getting together with family and friends to worship Christ. The Chinese Christians I’ve met are members of house churches and have never been hassled by any government official for engaging in their Christian religious activities.

[Note: China is a country of 1.3 billion people with a lot of different local government jurisdictions, so I’m not at all surprised that stories of local persecution emerge, just like stories of Americans killing Sikhs in the U.S. mistakenly believing them to be Muslims also occurs, but is not official domestic policy.]

What’s interesting about all of this is that not only has Christianity continued to spread throughout China, it’s NOT morphing into the money-grubbing, politically-active, bigotry-infested Evangelical megachurch business organizations that we see in the U.S. It CAN’T by law. Now there’s some spiritual beauty to that.

If we start up an organization, and engage in all that goes with such an undertaking, we almost invariably end up with some of the corruption and in-fighting that we find in most large organizations. We’ve all seen how small groups of 5, 10 or 15 people accomplish remarkable things, but once they go beyond that they almost invariably start to become corrupted; in little ways at first, but eventually more so as the size of the organization increases.

This is might be one reason why early Christian church worship groups reportedly rarely grew beyond about 15 or 20 people (e.g., I’ve even heard some people say that Jesus chose 12 disciples because that was the optimum size of a worship gathering and spiritual action group). My own sister tried out all kinds of different Christian churches in the U.S., became fed up with the Jesus Christ, Inc. mentality, and finally settled on a tiny house church group in Phoenix. She found it to be optimum, focused on Christ not Babylon, and that's all she's attended for the past 20 years.

As a person who has never gravitated toward large religious gatherings and one who has never thought it appropriate to mix politics and political action into religious worship gatherings, I&i would fit well into the practice of RastafarI in a house church in China, and would certainly not feel that my religious freedom was being impinged upon. After all, emancipation of the mind and our relationship with JAH are not external things; they require nobody’s permission.

Despite the astonishing growth of Christianity in China, much is still made in the Western mainstream media (which marches in lock step with other anti-China propaganda) about religious repression. This makes me think that perhaps their complaints have less to do with impingement on the individual freedom to practice Christianity and a lot more to do with denial of access to the church as breeding and launching ground for anti-Chinese-government civil unrest.

I&i nah need no big church to worship JAH, never have had one, and i’ve done just fine seeking H.I.M. without one. What was really cool was that the Chinese Christians i met shared exactly that same sentiment - seeking the Lord does not require a big building, a big organization or a mass media broadcasting channel. These guys humble themselves before JAH and place all of their faith in His Awesome Power. These are some very cool, righteous people.


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