This year there have been many news reports of defective goods like pet food, toothpaste, and fish coming out of China and into our markets.  Now China has threatened to try to hurt the US dollar if we try to put trade sanctions on them for currency manipulation.  I'm not an economist and don't understand what it all means, but as we contemplate how to deal with these economic problems we face with China, perhaps we should take a step back and examine the other side of the China problem.  What else is China exporting?

When Richard Nixon "opened" China to Western trade, the argument for doing business with such an oppressive and totalitarian regime was that the infiltration of Western culture, business and freedom into China would inevitably lead to liberation of the Chinese people. Over thirty years have passed. What freedom has blossomed? Catholics, including priests and bishops loyal to our Holy Father as well as other Christians and religious sects in China are routinely imprisoned and tortured. Political dissidents and Tibetan nationalists are jailed and tortured. Public executions in stadiums with forced attendance are held. Prisoners are executed so that their organs can be sold. Women are forced to have abortions or be sterilized if they attempt to surpass the government's limit on children. Because boy babies are favored due to their worker potential, many of the girl babies who are born become victims of infanticide, are abandoned, or are sold into the black market for future prostitution. Balance these things with the limited, but increased economic freedom some of the Chinese now have.

There was, we recall, a short rising and hope of freedom eighteen years ago, culminating and crushed in Tiananmen Square. Since that time the Chinese Government has redoubled (successfully from all indications) its efforts to indoctrinate the young people in the Communist ideology.

The Communist Government of China has managed to maintain their oppressive hold on their people by controlling their most basic instincts and rights, the very things which make us most human; that is the rightful worship of God and the procreation of new life — in effect dehumanizing its populace. And the West, which in many quarters agrees with the Chinese government control over procreation and doesn't often care about the worship of God, cannot offer hope to the Chinese because we are indifferent to their plight.  In fact, the West contributes to the dehumanization because Western business leaders only see the Chinese population as a utility to make money through cheaper manufacturing. The West sees the Chinese people the same way the Chinese government does — as tools with no humanity. (Notice this very ideology is the battleground in the US regarding in vitro fertilization, human cloning, and worker issues.)

The "opening of China" to promote freedom in that nation has failed miserably. But instead of admitting that the experiment, which had goodwill in its origins, is a disaster, our nation and the world persists in self-delusion — or is it greed? Opening China to Western business has been good for our economy. We have invested in business and factories. We send our unskilled jobs there so Western consumers can buy cheaper products.

I believe the greatest fear among many US government and business leaders during the "crisis" with China over our downed military plane in 2001 was that a public outcry against China might damage our business investments.

China now exports their culture of death and oppression to us. It is ironic that when the United Nations wanted to hold a conference on women's rights they picked China. During that conference, China population control policies were praised by Western representatives. The US imports the abortion pill, RU486 from China. They export their ideology and death to us and we give them our technology and business. Who does this benefit?

China is gearing up for the 2008 Olympic games, which were awarded to them. Here is another opportunity for China to put forth a good face so the world community can absolve themselves of their guilt while all the time the quiet oppression will continue in the background and long after the games are gone. China is a master at this. For years they release just enough prisoners to ease our conscience just before we grant them most favored nation status. After attaining their goals they go back to business (oppression) as usual. One day we may wake up — if we are able — and find our conscience (and maybe our culture) is gone.

The decision to award the 2008 Olympic Games to China should serve as yet another warning to us and to our culture. This decision, and our general acceptance of it, reveals much about our character as a people. The Olympic Games should be about celebrating freedom, competition, and peace. There is no peace in China. How can there be peace when God is excluded from culture? But as with everything else concerning China, the Olympics are about money, not peace.

Where are the Christians and Christian businessmen to stand in solidarity with our oppressed brethren in China?

The next ten years will either be a decade of great military conflict and destabilization (Iraq, Iran, Israel, N. Korea) or of military conflict coupled with negotiation, resulting in successful stabilization of the Middle East, N. Korea and others. China will stoke the fires of conflict around the world without getting directly involved while they cement their control and the rest of the world's economic dependence on them. The threat in the next several decades is China. That is the true cultural war to come — and if the West doesn't have its cultural virtues in line by the time it comes — we will topple.

Communist Russia was brought down by economics and the moral leadership promoting the dignity of man by John Paul II. Relying only on economics, Communist China may be a tougher challenge because of their population, demographics, and culture.  It is proven now that the present strategy has failed. At the very least, we should not continue on the failed path which permits the leaders in Beijing to buy our souls with money and propaganda. We should redouble our efforts, especially through prayer and fasting to obtain, from our merciful God, relief from suffering for the Chinese people.

Let us pray for the Chinese people tonight!