"One World - One Dream" - But what about Truth and Freedom?

The next days prompted more questions. Were the vast Olympic construction projects worth evicting more than a million people? Was winning a gold medal worth lying about the age of a gifted gymnast? Did banishing Christian leaders and their families from Beijing before the Olympics fit the vision of a "One World" union?

Communism has always clashed with truth, freedom and integrity, and China's choices illustrate the point. Only by unthinkable compromise can the "free world" find "common ground" with Communist totalitarianism. Yet, countless clues suggest that its masses are now marching blindly toward an illusion of unity, following leaders who willingly trade conviction for compromise.

Though human greatness is no proof of goodness, the Olympics did demonstrate China's technological advance. It warned us that we can no longer trust our eyes to separate reality from fantasy. Technology has become an indoctrination tool that blurs the line between fact and fascinating images.

More sobering are the evolving surveillance networks made possible by today's sophisticated technology. While Communism has always relied on spies and treachery, America is making it more effective. As Ellen Bork wrote in "Don't forget about China's dissidents,"

"The world isn't just sending athletes to the Olympics, but surveillance technology that will help the government keep tabs on its people for years to come. American companies alone have sold China technology that invisibly copies computer hard drives, reads encrypted text and performs facial recognition analysis on surveillance video."[7]

China is now testing its latest tools. No doubt Washington, too, is watching the people's response.

"At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity.

"...spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens. Data on the chip will include... work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status.... Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial 'one child' policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card....

"'If they do not get the permanent card, they cannot live here, they cannot get government benefits, and that is a way for the government to control the population in the future.'"[8]

Since the start of Mao's revolutionary reign, China has tried to track the attitudes and loyalties of its people. A personal record, called a Dang'an would follow each person through life. Those found to resist Communist indoctrination faced re-education, which included torture, deprivation and often death.[9]

Apparently this Dang'an still includes "appraisals by supervisors and peers, academic reports from primary school to university, professional credentials, any criminal convictions or administrative penalties, club/society memberships, employment records and political history (such as Youth League and CPC membership and assessments)."[9] And that's not all.

"Alterations may only be carried out by special cadres, and when combined with the custom of guanxi the result is that 'Personal revenge, false entries and special favors are thus part of the game.'... 'A black mark against you – a bad school report, a disagreement with your boss, a visit to a psychiatrist – all can travel with you for the rest of your life…'"[9]

China isn't the only country to monitor its citizens. Like Mao, Nazi Germany used terrifying spy networks to force all to submit. So did Stalin. I first realized that the United Nations called for universal monitoring when reading new documents on my flight home from its 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul. By then, America was already building its cradle to grave system of digital tracking that includes "mental health" -- i.e. thinking and acting in accordance with global standards for the "One World" community. [10]

2. Spirituality: But what kind?

A week before the Beijing Olympics, Chinese President Hu Jintao told foreign correspondents in Beijing that "the spiritual legacy [of the Olympics] will last much longer and be even more valuable" than its "material legacy."[11]

What did he mean by "spiritual"? I did a quick search on the Beijing Olympics website and found numerous references both to "spiritual" (as in "spiritual ideas of understanding, friendship, and equality") and to "spirit." The latter included cultural spirit, fighting spirit, sporting spirit, Olympic spirit, Chinese spirit and vibrant spirit. Nothing "religious" there! Focused on feelings and aspirations rather than facts and truth, these secular spirits fit right into Communist ideology.

So does China's religious heritage. Its subjective blend of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and superstition (remember, the lucky number "8" became the guiding light for the Olympic schedule) is largely a matter of social values, personal comfort, and ancestral devotion. It's based more on feelings (of loyalty and honor) than on facts. And the Yin Yang, China's Taoist symbol of unity in diversity, serves as a reminder that life is full of pain as well as pleasure -- and that both can be used to manipulate our minds.

Aldous Huxley shared some interesting observations about mandatory oneness in a book he wrote after Hitler temporarily shattered the socialist vision of an evolving utopia. In Brave New World Revisited, he wrote,

"The future dictator’s subjects will be painlessly regimented by a corps of highly trained social engineers....

"Their behavior is determined, not by knowledge and reason, but by feelings and unconscious drives. It is in these drives and feelings that 'the roots of their positive as well as their negative attitudes are implanted.' To be successful a propagandist must learn how to manipulate these instincts and emotions.... Whoever wishes to win over the masses must know the key that will open the door of their hearts.'... [Remember Rick Warren's community surveys]

"Twenty years before Madison Avenue embarked upon 'Motivational Research,' Hitler was systematically exploring and exploiting the secret fears and hopes, the cravings, anxieties and frustrations of the German masses."

"It is by manipulating 'hidden forces' that the advertising experts induce us to buy their wares—a toothpaste, a brand of cigarettes, a political candidate. ... 'All effective propaganda,' Hitler wrote, 'must be confined to a few bare necessities and then must be expressed in a few stereotyped formulas.' These stereotyped formulas must be constantly repeated, for 'only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea upon the memory of a crowd.'"[12]

Now, almost fifty years later, many of Huxley's warnings have become reality. Individual thinking gives way to collective thinking under the skilled guidance of trained facilitators (in churches as well as governments) whose sophisticated strategies have been tested and proven in psycho-social laboratories -- first by Communist dictators and later in the "free" world. Their guinea pigs were first our military troops, then the poor. Now their tentacles are reaching out to everyone... especially through schools and large churches. The transformation is universal, and woe to those who resist!

3. The cleansing: Who must be purged for the sake of Harmony?

The answer is simple: any group classified as "an evil cult." That includes thousands of unregistered Chinese House Churches.

Communism has never tolerated Biblical Christianity. Nor did Hitler. To manage the German masses in the late 1930s, Hitler ordered all churches to hang his picture above their altars. Pastors who refused were replaced by Nazi puppets.

Like Nazi Germany, the Maoist regime in China determined to bring all "Christians" into the same government-controlled fold. It established the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM), and banned independent churches. Christians had to choose whether to conform to TSPM rules or risk imprisonment, torture and death.

The Three Self (TSPM) ideals were designed to sound good: Self-governance, Self-support, and Self-propagation. But faithful Christians look to their Lord, not to Self, for guidance, support and propagation. They would refuse to trade faithfulness to God for any loyalty to State.

The TSPM pastors would be trained at government sanctioned seminaries, and its registered members would be taught according to government guidelines. One of those rules has outlawed our Biblical hope in eternal life with Christ.

• The Communist Party decides what can be preached.
• Preaching should focus on the social rules and the social benefits of Christianity.
• Preaching outside government monitored TSPM church buildings is forbidden.
• Evangelizing is forbidden.
• Giving out tracts is forbidden.
• Importing Bibles is forbidden.
• Printing Bibles [without government permission] is forbidden.
• Giving Bibles to children or teenagers is forbidden.
• Teachers [soldiers and government officials] cannot be Christian.
• Children or teenagers cannot be Christian.[13]

When Christians face pressure from the world, God gives them strength to both endure the pain and to demonstrate His love to others. Faced with persecution, God's underground Church simply grew stronger. Some estimate that its number has now reached or surpassed 100 million.

Yet, repression continues. Ponder these pre-Olympic attempts to silence the Church:

"Beijing activist and house church leader Hua Huiqi has been evicted from his home amid rumors that officials want to keep him away from next month’s Olympic Games. Public Security Bureau officers used a hammer to break into Hua’s rented flat and threw the family – including Hua’s 90-year-old father, Hua Zaichen – into the street with their furniture. Hua’s brother sustained serious injury to his eye after officials beat him. Hua’s elderly mother, Shuang Shuying, remains in Beijing’s women’s jail, serving a two-year sentence on disputed charges of ‘damaging government property’. Officials have told Hua she will be freed if he gives up his human rights work and church activities."[14]

Pastor Zhang Zhongxin Sentenced to Two Years Re-education through Labor: "Authorities accused him of cult participation in the 'the whole scope of the Church'... preaching the Gospel...."[15]

"Pastor Bike Zhang, chairman of the Federation House Church and his wife, Xie Fenglan, were forced to leave their home.... The couple was able to find shelter in the home of a friend, Niu Bei until officials again found the home and forced the Zhangs to leave. Zhang and his wife were forced to move into a hotel. ... PSB officials threatened the owner of the hotel to evict the couple or face incarceration. The couple then decided to find residence in Changping, but were stopped by police officials.... Police proceeded to interrogate the couple... without food, drink, or rest. ... Xie Fenglan collapsed due to the stress of the torture.... The couple was released... stopped at a local hotel ... officials again drove the couple out of the hotel.... Zhang begged the PSB officials to allow his sick wife to stay in the location and rest overnight. The officials rejected this plea....

"When asked why the couple was being expelled from Beijing, officials responded, 'Because Bike Zhang met the Americans, and destroyed the harmony of the Beijing Olympic Games.'"[16]

Dictators know that early prevention serves their goals better than persecution. So Nazi Germany established the Hitler Youth -- copying Stalin's effective mind-changing strategies. China did the same. Today, its Olympics includes a youth camp. Ponder its invitation to future leaders:

"'Youth Create the Future.'... I believe your participation and experience in this camp shall be marked with respect for each other and forged in a sense of unity and cooperation.... In the spirit of harmony, compassion, creativity and learning through experience, the Camp has already invited participants nominated by more than 200 National Olympic Committees (NOC).... The goal is to promote the Olympic spirit among young people, and the ideals of world peace, cooperation and development...."[17]

Illusions may sound enticing but they can't change reality. God's Word stands forever, and man can do nothing to cancel His eternal plans.

"Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves -- and the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
'Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.'" Psalm 2:1-3

But in the midst of it all, God reigns! "Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him!" Psalm 2:12

Part 1: Who's Guiding the Olympic Vision? | When Iron Gates Yield

Endnotes:

1. One World One Dream at http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/beijing2008/graphic/n214068253.shtml

2. The Olympic Emblem at http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/beijing2008/graphic/n214070081.shtml

3. China Aid at http://chinaaid.org/2008/08/13/beijing-house-churches-forced-to-sign-document-pledging-not-to-meet-during-the-olympic-games/

4. China’s Leaders Try to Impress and Reassure World at www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/sports/olympics/09china.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=asia

5.Starlet Lin Miaoke mimed at Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony at www.theaustralian.news.com.au/beijing_olympics/story/0,27313,24169753-5014197,00.html

6. House Churches Deeply Disappointed in Brother Bush' Visit to the TSPM at www.crossroad.to/Persecution/china/house-church-bush.htm

7. Ellen Bork, "Don't forget about China's dissidents," The Wall Street Journal, August, 7, 2008.

8. Enacting a High-Tech Plan to Track People at www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/business/worldbusiness/12security.html

9. "Public records in China at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangan