China Under Pressure

A picture from our trip to Ethiopia. Shown here, Jerry, a licensed electrician from our group is astounded at the exposed and very unsafe mess of wires coming from the high voltage power lines into the local high school in Zwai. When asked why they don't secure the wires safely, the administrator said, "It would cost too much money." The fact of the matter is, in most places in the world, money is worth more than human life (perhaps because it's more rare). And that is tragic.


I've been thinking lately about China.

From the news I've been reading, it seems that China is going to be pressured to make some wholesale reforms this year, mainly because of the international scrutiny of the world because it is hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. It's been a tough year for China, in terms of its public image. I've made a partial list:

• April - Tainted pet food containing the toxic chemical melamine is believed to have caused kidney failure in dogs and cats across North America, with at least 14 pets dying because of the chemical.


• June 1 - The FDA warned consumers to avoid using toothpaste made in China because it may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.


• Aug. 19 - Mattel recalled 9 million toys manufactured in China after the toys were discovered to contain unsafe levels of lead and other chemicals.


• Aug. 29 - China publicly executed its former head of the Food and Drug safety for accepting bribes.


• Feb. 19 - The US Olympic Committee, wary of food quality in China following recent incidents of tainted products and reports of the heavy use of drugs and insecticides in food production, announces its plans to transport tons of meats and other foods for US athletes in its own US training camp in Beijing.


• Feb. 19 - Steven Spielberg resigns as artistic adviser to the Olympic Games. China supplies guns and weapons to military leaders in the Sudan in exchange for exclusive oil drilling rights. China, which needs millions of gallons of oil to operate its nation, has entered into an "unholy" partnership with a pariah Sudanese government accused of fostering genocide in its western Darfur region.

So that's a bad year.

And it is clear that in response, China is making some changes, but they seem to be changes based upon fear of public opinion to appease the global marketplace, not because they believe it's the right thing to do. Perhaps that's okay. Martin Luther King once said something to the effect of "My goal is to help rid the white Southern racist of the hatred in his heart, but in the meantime, I want to be sure there are laws so he can't lynch me."

I see his point. Right now, China is trying to clean things up to improve its global standing and avoid shame - which are fine motivators, but it's not the end goal. The goal is for China to be a society that respect human life enough to throw money at it. After all, a culture throws money at things it values (case in point: In 1997, former presidential candidate John Edwards made history by winning a 25-million dollar lawsuit against Sta-Rite, a North Carolina company that knowingly manufactured and distributed a defective pool drain cover that severely hurt a three-year old girl. And even if you hate how litigious our society is, you have to admit that when a company knowingly does something dangerous and it results in a child being hurt, then the company should be punished. Cynics might disagree, but it seems that monetary award is a reflection of our value on human life).

Some would say that the ethos of China is one that does not value human life. For example:

• Decades of brutal treatment under communist leaders tends to erode a public sense of the importance (or even possibility) of justice and equality.


• Years of collectivization diminishes the bright shine of the individual and drive to empower the unique and creative gifts of the individual.


• A frenzied race for global competition in the marketplace causes morality to take a second-place to money (if you have any doubt about this, think about the Chinese Black Market for software).


• Years of government imposed sanctions on child-bearing has created a consistently anti-female, pro-infanticide and pro-gender-specific abortion culture that has left China with a male/female ratio that is bizarrely out of whack with natural patterns.

Which is why it's good news that China's underground house-church network of evangelicals is spreading like wild-fire. Though the Communist Party all but destroyed the Protestant and Catholic churches when it took over in 1949, scholars estimate that the country now has at least 45 million Christians.

Which means that Revival (even more than Olympics) could be the the force that changes China from the inside out.