Ukraine-Russia conflict: has globalisation helped or hindered responses? (NATO Review) 

 

Published on Sep 2, 2014

Countries have increased their links in a smaller, globalised world. But reactions to Russia's actions in Ukraine mean that a brake has to be put on some of this interlinking. Has globalisation made it easier or more difficult to react? Has it made it impossible to punish Russia without suffering pain at home? And where next for the sanctions and counter-sanctions?

 

WATCH: the CNN report that China doesn't want you to see

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Chinese police tear down crosses, beat Christians
(CNN) The Chinese government pulled the plug on CNN's feed inside their country when AC360 aired David McKenzie's report on the crackdown on Christians in Eastern China. Christian leaders there are facing the worst persecution in decades. It features exclusive video of police clashing with church members.
Christians in eastern China scramble to save symbol of their faith
Wenzhou, China (CNN) -- At a gray church on the outskirts of Wenzhou in eastern China, Christians from across the county keep a nervous watch.

Some stand behind the iron gate; others sit just inside the church door. For more than two months they've waited, preparing themselves to protect the cross on top of their church.

"If I have to, I am going to hold it in my arms and protect it," one elderly man says. "They have no right to tear it down, that is why we have to defend our church."

Like many here, it's too risky for him to give his name.

Wenzhou is known as the "Jerusalem of China" and throughout this year the local Communist Party authorities have demolished scores of churches and forcibly removed more than 300 church crosses.

Chinese church leaders say it's the worst anti-Christian crackdown in decades.

"What the government here is doing is so barbaric, they're like bandits and we are furious with them," says Chen Zhi'ai, a respected church leader in the Wenzhou area. "Today we've seen the fundamental symbol of our faith violated and it hurts us deep inside our hearts."
The local authorities are mostly targeting state-sanctioned churches, long tolerated by the ruling Communist Party and often touted as a sign of religious freedom in the officially atheist country.

READ: China denies church demolition is persecution

Scores have been injured in the crackdown, as congregations throughout the region try to stop the government teams.

In late July, hundreds of police tried to storm the gates of the Salvation Church in Pingyang County in Wenzhou.

Like other attempted demolitions, they moved in in the middle of the night, and scenes of extraordinary defiance unfolded on the church's CCTV video as club-wielding police beat their way in.

They appear to lose their resolve when an older man is rushed away by ambulance. A blow to the head fractured his skull, say church activists.
But several weeks later, they came back with reinforcements and tore down the cross. It now lies under a cheap plastic shroud at the foot of the church's stairs.

"They wanted to drag it away," says a church caretaker who wouldn't give his name. "But we refused. Now it is too big for us to move."

Illegal structures?

The local government denies the crackdown on Christianity. They say the demolitions are part of a broader campaign to target illegal structures in the province. They say church demolitions represent only a tiny fraction of their work.

READ: The future of Christianity of China

But leaked party documents single out churches and folk religious sites in the so-called "three rectifications and one demolition" campaign. And church leaders like Chen say that the demolition campaign is merely a front for a crackdown to curtail Christianity's influence in the region.

Church leaders say that the central government has ignored all their complaints and petitions. They fear that the Wenzhou demolitions could be a test case for the party, an opening salvo in what could become a wider national campaign.

"The leaders think Christianity is a foreign religion and it is part of a foreign culture, which they define as 'western' culture," says Chen. "They see our growth as an invasion of western culture into China."

Since Chairman Mao's death in 1976, Christianity has taken hold in China. Though it is still a minority religion.
"Christianity has been growing very rapidly in China in the last several decades," says Fenggang Yang of Purdue University in Indiana. "There is very little sign that it is slowing down."

"It moved from a largely rural religion, came into the cities and became very popular with entrepreneurs. Many converts are now the youth."

He estimates that in a few years China will have more Christians than Communist Party members, which stood at more than 85 million in the last count.

And in just 15 years, China could overtake the U.S. as the country with largest Christian population in the world. Chinese state media have disputed those claims.

'Social glue'

Back at the gray church, the Christians have managed to keep the demolition crews away for now. Their striking red cross sits above the church's spire. They often sing hymns to steel their resolve. "The Cross Is My Glory" by a Taiwanese composer has become a rallying cry in Wenzhou

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Top 10 Quran Verses for Understanding ISIS of the Levant

BarbWire

on 12 September, 2014 at 08:00

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By David Wood – BarbWire guest contributor
Jihadists fighting for ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) claim that they are following the commands of Allah and Muhammad. Yet Westernized Muslims, politicians, and the media insist that ISIS is violating the principles of Islam. Who’s right?

In the following video, I present the top ten Qur’an verses you need to know to understand ISIS.

Here are the ten verses I cite in the video:

Qur’an 3:32—Say: Obey Allah and the Apostle; but if they turn back, then surely Allah does not love the unbelievers.

Qur’an 48:29—is the Messenger of Allah, and those who are with him are severe against disbelievers, and merciful among themselves. You see them bowing and falling down prostrate (in prayer), seeking Bounty from Allah and (His) Good Pleasure. The mark of them (i.e. of their Faith) is on their faces (foreheads) from the traces of (their) prostration (during prayers). This is their description in the Taurat (Torah). But their description in the Injeel (Gospel) is like a (sown) seed which sends forth its shoot, then makes it strong, it then becomes thick, and it stands straight on its stem, delighting the sowers that He may enrage the disbelievers with them. Allah has promised those among them who believe (i.e. all those who follow Islamic Monotheism, the religion of Prophet Muhammad SAW till the Day of Resurrection) and do righteous good deeds, forgiveness and a mighty reward (i.e. Paradise).

Qur’an 4:24—Also (forbidden are) women already married, except those (captives and slaves) whom your right hands possess. Thus hath Allah ordained (Prohibitions) against you: Except for these, all others are lawful, provided ye seek (them in marriage) with gifts from your property—desiring chastity, not lust, seeing that ye derive benefit from them, give them their dowers (at least) as prescribed; but if, after a dower is prescribed, agree mutually (to vary it), there is no blame on you, and Allah is All-knowing, All-wise.

Qur’an 5:33—The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement.

Qur’an 9:5—Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

Qur’an 9:29—Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day [notice it says "fight those who do not believe," not "fight people who are attacking you"], nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth, from among the People of the Book [the people of the book are Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Qur’an 9:73—O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination.

Qur’an 9:111—Surely Allah has bought of the believers their persons and their property for this, that they shall have the garden; they fight in Allah’s way, so they slay and are slain; a promise which is binding on Him in the Taurat and the Injeel and the Quran; and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? Rejoice therefore in the pledge which you have made; and that is the mighty achievement.

Qur’an 47:35—Be not weary and fainthearted, crying for peace, when ye should be uppermost: for Allah is with you, and will never put you in loss for your (good) deeds.

Qur’an 2:106—Whatever communications We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it. Do you not know that Allah has power over all things?

Source
David Wood is a Christian apologist and contributes at his website Answering Islam. He also has written on The Problem With Evil and is a contributor at Acts 17. Follow David on Twitter.
H/T FreedomOutpost.com

Read more at http://barbwire.com/2014/09/12/top-ten-quran-verses-understanding-isis/#huiyOZuLTObxJogP.99

Ukraine’s China Option Should Poroshenko visit Beijing, as Richard Nixon once did?

 Ukraine’s China Option       5670

Should Poroshenko visit Beijing, as Richard Nixon once did?

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko recently went to Minsk to negotiate with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.  

Afterwards, Russia began a surreptitious, full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Poroshenko now continues to talk to the EU and the United States in hopes of getting some assistance from them, military or economic. So far all he got are expressions of concern about Russia’s actions.


To start solving his country’s problems, the Ukrainian President should take a page from the book by that great Machiavellian, Richard Nixon, and travel to Beijing soon.
So far, neither the United States nor Europe has done much to support Ukraine in its unequal struggle to repel Russian aggression.

True, there have been economic sanctions, but they were mostly imposed after Russia-supported terrorists in Eastern Ukraine shot down a passenger airliner, killing citizens of Western countries. These sanctions are not going to stop Putin’s determination to crush Ukraine.

Americans love to talk about being the last, best hope of mankind and about supporting democracy around the world. However, in the case of Ukraine, Washington has become quite shy about putting its money where its mouth has been for so many decades.

Ukraine’s case for assistance from Western Europe is even stronger. The entire idea of Europe today is based on an ideal — that the European continent could be peaceful, democratic and have open societies and open borders.

Europe’s cold shoulder

Any European nation can join the process of integration — as long as it subscribes to the ideal. Few nations have underscored their determination to be part of Europe more convincingly in decades than the Ukrainians. 

 They have shed blood for their right to belong to Europe.  The least Brussels can do is welcome them with open arms.
But because Europe has no stomach for a confrontation with Putin, Ukraine has been left to fight Russian aggression on its own.

Thank God, it is not a bipolar world any longer.  For Ukraine, there are alternatives to either begging the West for help or being strangled by the Kremlin’s deadening embrace. This is why Poroshenko should take a trip to China — just as Nixon did in 1972.

Nixon’s visit back then put the fear of God into the aging Russian leadership.  It suddenly envisioned a nightmare scenario of being surrounded by a billion Chinese on one side and NATO forces on the other.

As soon as they realized that, the Russians were ready to accept Nixon’s offer of détente.  They also leaned on their Vietnamese clients to allow U.S. troops to withdraw from Saigon with a modicum of dignity.

China: always on the sideline?

China has kept out of the Ukrainian conflict so far. It has not lent support to the Russian aggression, but it has also been careful to refrain from criticizing it. 

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As things stand, it makes good geopolitical sense for China to throw its considerable weight behind Ukraine.
First, consider the fact that China has major territorial claims on Russia, which includes huge territories in Eastern Siberia and the Far East that the Russian Empire annexed in the 19th century 

These territories are being systematically populated by Chinese settlers and receive considerable Chinese investment. China is waiting patiently for the moment when it can seize them.

It would certainly make it beneficial to China’s strategic posture if Russia were hopelessly bogged down in a conflict on its Western border — or, even better, suffered a military defeat there.

Then the Putin regime could fall and Russia would be thrown into serious political turmoil.  That may make it easier for China to assert outright sovereignty over Russia’s Far East.

Beating back Russia

In recent years, China has been quietly active in global politics, supplanting Russia as the principal patron in parts of Central Asia. Acquiring an ally with the size and strategic importance of Ukraine on the post-Soviet space would undoubtedly be a coup for Beijing.

Finally, China is already investing in Ukraine. Its automotive companies see Ukraine as a perfect market for their proprietary brands. It is potentially vast, underserved and highly price-conscious.

Ukraine is one of the largest markets in the world for Chinese companies such as FAW, Great Wall, SAIC and others. They plan to use it as a steppingstone to an eventual worldwide expansion. In turn, Ukraine, once Europe’s breadbasket, could become a key supplier of agricultural products to the insatiable Chinese market.

China has been investing heavily in its military and developing advanced weapons. In the hands of Ukrainian soldiers, those weapons could be tested in real-life combat against a strong adversary.
True, Beijing rulers are extremely cautious. They may decline to supply weapons and provide military support to Ukraine for fear of antagonizing Putin.

But a visit to Beijing by the Ukrainian President may give a pause to Moscow, while giving Washington and Brussels a jolt.  It may force them to do what they should have done a long time ago, i.e., provide military assistance to Ukraine.

More on this topic

• Advantage China: Putin’s Dangerous Crimea Precedent
• How Far Will Putin Go?
• Don’t Give Up on a United Ukraine