70 YEARS OF COMMUNISM IN CHINA

You can listen to the latest From the Frontline podcast on 70 Years of Communism in China.
 
What is there to Celebrate?
October 2019 marks 70 years since the Communist Party seized power in China.
What is the true legacy of Communism in the world’s most populous nation?
What we can learn from the Persecuted Church?
How we can best serve the Persecuted?
There are some dramatic developments and encouraging reports of spectacular growth of the Church in China. “…on this rock I will build My Church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18
 
The Catastrophic Consequences of Communism
As some celebrate 70 years of Communism in China and incredible numbers of Christians in the West identify them as “Christian Socialists”, or even as Communists, it is necessary that we take an objective look at the catastrophic consequences of Communism. We need to be aware of the human cost of Communist economic and social theories and their application in Communist states which espouse the “goodness of man.” “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:13

---

Revolution in China
The Communist Revolution in Red China, in 1949, was followed by the Great Leap Forward in 1958 and by the Second Phase of the Revolution from 1966 to 1976. This Second Phase of the Revolution, or the Cultural Revolution in China, included massive seizures of property, widespread “Land Reform”, confiscation without compensation, public humiliation ceremonies of religious and cultural leaders, arbitrary imprisonments, torture, hard labour and vast numbers of mass executions. It is calculated that over 69 million people died in this Second Phase of the Revolution in China alone.

---

The Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution in China also included purging “The Party” of any deemed “disloyal” - which even included the president, Liu Shaoqi and Commander of the Red Army, General Lou Ruiqing. Mao Tse Tung mobilised his Red Guards to sweep into every farm and village of the vast country to purge “reactionaries”, “counter revolutionaries” and all others not deemed sufficiently enthusiastic for the Revolution. The result was the destruction of thousands of years of culture and crippling the country economically. It impoverished China intellectually and culturally. Mao was able to mobilise the young Red Guards for this destructive campaign because they had never known life in nationalist China and had been effectively indoctrinated in the state schools with Marxist propaganda and Mao’s Little Red Book.

---

The Black Book of Communism
The Black Book of Communism, published by Harvard University Press, is a scholarly, detailed account of the crimes of Communism starting with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and continuing through Eastern Europe, Red China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola and Afghanistan. The Black Book’s exhaustive indictment of Communism is all the more compelling because all 6 of its authors were once communists, or "fellow travellers" with communism, researchers, professors and journalists associated with the Paris based Centre for the Study of History and Sociology of Communism. The editor of The Black Book, Stephane Courtois was also the editor of the "Communisme" magazine.

---

Facing the Facts
"Communism has committed a multitude of crimes not only against individual human beings but also against world civilization and national cultures… during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, priceless treasures were smashed, or burned by the Red Guards… firing squads, hanging, drowning, battering… destruction of the population by starvation, through man-made famine, the withholding of food, or both; deportation, through which death can occur in transit (either through physical exhaustion, or through confinement in an enclosed space)… or through forced labour (exhaustion, illness, hunger, cold)…"

---

A Harvest of Horror
The Black Book presents a very conservative estimate of the number of civilians murdered by Red China as at least 65 million. “…Communism is… a tragedy of planetary dimensions… the Communist record offers the most colossal case of political carnage in history… Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward and his Cultural Revolution…”  Communist regimes did not just commit criminal acts; "they were criminal enterprises in their very essence, on principle, so to speak, they all ruled lawlessly, by violence and without regard for human life." The Black Book concludes that our current history books and social and political judgements are scandalously out of line with the 20th Century’s real balance sheet of political crime. "They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity…" 2 Peter 2:19

---

Death by Government
“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton
Although governments are meant to protect their citizens, secular socialist states in the 20th Century murdered over 169 million of their own citizens! This astonishing statistic is the result of decades of research by political science Professor R.J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii. Prof. Rummel’s shocking research is presented in the 500-page book: Death By Government (2006, Transaction Publishers, New Branswick, NJ). The charts and statistics measuring the life taking propensities of state governments were developed from the Professor’s analysis of 8,200 sources, involved over 4,200 consolidations and calculations, which were organised into appendix tables totalling more than 18,100 rows.

---

​Recognise Political Realities
Prof. Rummel notes that textbooks on Political Science need to be modernised to recognise political realities. While most textbooks refer to the functions of government as: “Law and Order”, “Safety and Security”, “Cultural Maintenance” and “Social Welfare”, the fact is that “We have numerous examples of governments that killed hundreds of thousands and even millions of their own citizens, enslaved the rest and abolished traditional culture… Power kills; absolute power kills absolutely… The more power a government has, the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects. The more constrained the powers of governments, the more power is diffused, checked and balanced, the less it will aggress on others… totalitarian Communist governments have slaughtered their people by the tens of millions…”

---

The Greatest Killers in History
The Soviet Union and Red China accounted for most of the deaths by government in the 20th Century. “Death by Government” calculates that up to 105 million people were murdered by the Communist Party of China, from 1949 to 1987. Rummel’s exhaustive documentation in “Death By Government” exhibits the sheer lethality of power. “Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue” Edmund Burke

---

Tyrants Prefer Disarmed Victims
Prof. Rummel’s colossal masterpiece “Death By Government” conclusively proves that far from governments being the solution to crime and violence, historically governments have been the prime culprits for crime and violence. Far from governments being the solution, they are more often than not the problem. Most government policies to deal with crime and poverty are counterproductive, creating more crime and more poverty. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the state attempts to disarm civilians. Every genocide of the 20th Century was preceded by gun control and disarmament of civilians. Just as criminals prefer unarmed victims, tyrants prefer disarmed citizens. A government that does not trust its citizens with weapons cannot be trusted with power. Freedom is when the government fears the people. Tyranny is when the people fear the government. No government can be trusted with a monopoly of force. Decentralisation of power, the rule of law and armed citizens are essential foundation for freedom.

---

Atrocities and Persecution
Red China may now be practising a version of capitalism, but there are still over a million Christians in concentration camps for their Faith, many are slaves and organ harvesting for transplants are often done using prisoners, many of whom are Christians.
 
The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail
Notice how people in Hong Kong are protesting against the communist threats to their freedoms there. The survival and growth of the Christian Church in China is an incredible answer to prayer. Despite vicious persecution and oppression by a brutal atheistic regime, the Church in Red China is now over 100 million strong. Operation World reports that there are over 1,119,000 congregations, 75 million Church members and over 105 million adherents, or affiliates, in China.
 
Mobilise Prayer and Support for the Persecuted
Mobilise your family and friends and congregations to pray for these persecuted.
“Remember the prisoners as if chained with them…” Hebrews 13:3
10 November is International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted.
For resources to mobilise your congregation to serve the suffering, visit www.IDOP-Africa.org.
 
Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.FrontlineMissionSA.org

See also:
The Heart and Soul of Karl Marx.
Going Through and Going On by Rev. Bill Bathman
The Greatest Killer, available on Sermon Audio as an audio.
Cuba, Castro and Communism, available as an audio.
KGB, Active Measures, Disinformation and Subversion, available as an audio.
How Marxists Subvert Churches and Society, available as an audio, as well as an Interview on Marxism.
The Failure of Atheism and the Triumph of Faith in Russia, available as a video and audio.

---