More than 100 Protestant Christians from the Early Rain Covenant Church – one of China’s few openly operating unofficial house churches – were snatched from their homes and streets across Chengdu, Sichuan province, in a crackdown that began on Sunday night. Among those detained were church pastor Wang Yi, his wife Jiang Rong, church leaders, members and seminary students.

The round-up in Chengdu is part a broader crackdown on unofficial or underground churches that Beijing launched early this year, bolstered by amendments to the Religious Affairs Regulation that gave grass-roots officials more power to act against churches and impose tougher penalties for “unauthorised religious gatherings”. . .

[The jailed pastor of the church] also called on church members to keep worshipping and meet outdoors if venues could not be rented, adding that the group would never give up on practising its faith publicly. . .

[The church] has about 500 followers but its weekly gatherings spread across more than a dozen meeting points around Chengdu, attracting more than 800 church-goers each week, according to church leaders. It also has about 100 seminary students and a primary school catering to about 40 children.

Another major house church, the Living Stone Church in Guiyang, Guizhou province, was also banned three years ago. Li Guozhi, one of the church’s two pastors, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for releasing a document outlining an official plan to destroy the church. (Read more from “Members of Unofficial Chinese Church Vow to Defy Crackdown and Keep Meeting” HERE)

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The highly anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit concluded last Saturday evening with no major breakthrough. Pundits who had hoped for a good trade deal between the U.S. and China are surely disappointed.

President Trump previously threatened to raise tariffs from 10 to 25 percent on about $250 billion worth of Chinese imports on January 1, 2019. Now he has agreed to hold off on the tariff hike while both the Americans and Chinese delegations engage in trade negotiations for the next 90 days.

At present, President Xi has agreed not to impose any tit-for-tat response to current U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. While stock markets and businesses worldwide can breathe a sigh of relief for now since the trade war will not get worse for another three months, the temporary truce can’t mask the deep divisions between the United States and China. . .

From the U.S. perspective, the rise of China has transitioned from a hope to a disappointment to a threat. When former president Richard Nixon visited Communist China in 1972 and established a diplomatic relationship, 99 percent of Chinese people made less than $2 a day and China’s per capita gross domestic product was less than $200. The Chinese people were poorer than people in Bangladesh, to put it into perspective.

In 2017, China’s GDP per capita was close to $9,000. Global poverty rates have been cut in half since 1981, mainly because of China’s impressive economic growth. This economic growth has a lot to do with the Chinese people’s ingenuity and certain market-friendly policies from their central government. But China often fails to mention that China wouldn’t have had almost four decades of impressive growth without the West, especially the United States, providing markets for Chinese goods, bringing foreign investment to China to build factories, and training millions of talented Chinese students at Western colleges and universities. (Read more from “The Ceasefire in Our Trade War with China Doesn’t Solve Deeper Problems” HERE)

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As the media focus on Jamal Khashoggi, Osama bin Laden’s old friend who writes for The Washington Post so that makes him a hero, another international figure has gone missing and may now be dead, according to his own wife.

Earlier this month The Daily Wire reported on the disappearance of then-Interpol President Meng Hongwei. He reportedly went to China to visit family, sent his wife a text with the “knife emoji” and a message saying “Wait for my call,” and then went silent. French police opened an investigation (Interpol headquarters is located in France) and asked the Chinese government for information. A day later, Interpol received a resignation letter from Meng, and China claimed he was being investigated for bribery.

Meng was living with his family in France after he became the first Chinese national to lead Interpol, an international police organization. He was also China’s vice minister of public security.

Meng’s wife, Grace, who first appealed to international media when she believed her husband was missing, now tells the BBC she doesn’t know if he’s still even alive. . .

The Guardian reports that Meng may be held under the new Chinese form of custody, “liuzhi,” which means “retention in custody.” The former custody system, “shuanggui,” used torture. The custody is overseen by the National Supervisory Commission, an agency created this year and charged with investigating government corruption. (Read more from “The Missing, Presumed Dead International Figure You Aren’t Hearing About” HERE)

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China still has several tools in its kit to mitigate the negative effects of President Trump’s trade war on its economy. With a top-down economic structure and a huge domestic market, China may be able to absorb some impact of the latest round of tariffs by turning goods destined for export around for internal consumption.

While pushing back on U.S. demands, China continues expanding to new markets. President Xi’s “One Belt and One Road” initiative to build infrastructure projects from Europe to Africa has already provided a big market and consistent demand for Chinese exports, especially those running into overcapacity issues, such as steel and cement. Many countries along the initiative routes are resource-rich. They will provide a steady supply of raw material and energy to support China’s long-term economic growth.

China can also increase its investment in Africa. In early September, Xi announced a $60 billion package of aid, investment, and loan money for Africa. Since Africa is already becoming overloaded with Chinese debt, the majority of this aid package is expected to be investments that will provide an outlet for Chinese goods and services.

Beijing has also started a charm offensive with U.S. businesses. Xi’s top economic advisor recently promised a delegation of U.S. multinationals that U.S. businesses operating in China “won’t be targeted in Beijing’s trade counterattacks.” China’s government-run tabloid, the Global Times, tried to appeal to U.S. businesses by stating, “The Chinese market can help them make money, but the White House can’t.”

Most importantly, Xi became president for life in March of this year. Time is on his side. He doesn’t face much political pressure to reach a trade deal with the United States. As a matter of fact, China’s hardliners may grumble if they perceive any trade deal has sold out China’s interests. So Xi has strong incentives to act like the tough guy who won’t yield to U.S. demands. This probably explains why China already warned the United States that it would back out of the latest round of trade talks if Trump goes ahead with his latest tariff announcement. (Read more from “China Still Has Plenty of Ammunition to Fight Back in Trump’s Trade War” HERE)

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