China (MNN) — China faces criticism on the world stage, both for its treatment of the Uighur population and for cracking down on freedoms in Hong Kong.
Is it time for a rebrand? Chinese President Xi Jinping says China must show itself as more “loveable.” This comes as unfavorable views of the Chinese government have risen greatly in many countries.
But Kurt Rovenstine of Bibles for China says criticism of China’s government shouldn’t turn into negative views of the Chinese people. “The reality of China is that a small minority of people are making decisions that cause the rest of the world to look at China in an unfavorable fashion. But there are a number of God-fearing believers in Jesus Christ. They are anxious to share their faith with their neighbors, and are hungry for the Word of God.”
100th-anniversary celebrations
The Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary this month. It’s a politically charged event, but Rovenstine encourages love and prayer rather than rhetoric. “If we embrace everything that we see and hear and judge the whole nation by that, then we’re really being anti-scriptural. We’re not to judge, we’re to love. So, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ In the story that Jesus gave us, the true neighbor was the man who reached out to someone who didn’t necessarily like him.”
Ask God to strengthen and multiply Chinese Christians.
The header photo shows a poster about the 100th-anniversary celebration of the Communist Party in China. (Huangdan2060, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
