Christian China, takes on Islam, Oh Good.

by | Aug 10, 2007


Here’s a purported future trend that has some on the right salivating – a rapidly Christianizing China acting as a natural counterweight to Islam. According to National Review’s, Mark Krikorian (bio):

Christianity has much better prospects in Red China than in Taiwan or Hong Kong (or Japan). It’s not just cultural characteristics that determine how receptive a people might be to the Gospel (or any other religious or political message), but also the political and historical circumstances. Koreans were uniquely open to Christianity, for instance, because it wasn’t the religion of their oppressors (the Japanese) and its adoption could be seen as a patriotic act (kind of like sticking with Roman Catholicism in Ireland or Poland).

After being suppressed by the ChiComs for so long (something that didn’t happen in Taiwan or Hong Kong), Christianity may well have succeeded in earning real credibility among a significant number of Chinese, and could well be appealing to modernizing people in the big cities looking for something to believe in.

While I wouldn’t place any bets on a Chinese army razing Mecca, it seems perfectly plausible that China could have 200 million Christians in the not-too-distant future.

Read the article that started the discussion off and dissent from old-style Tory, John Derbyshire.

Author

  • David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.

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