FEATURED ARTICLE Seoul Commitment (July 18, 2013, Chinese Church Voices)
In June of this year about a hundred church leaders from Mainland China joined their counterparts from around Asia and beyond for the Asian Church Leaders Forum, held in Seoul, Korea. In response to the conferences reaffirmation of the 2010 Cape Town Commitment the participants from China (many of whom had planned to attend the Lausanne Congress in Cape Town but were prevented from doing so) drafted their own commitment to engage as partners with the global church in world evangelization. Their statement is here reproduced in its entirety.
Taylor Gorman
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July 18, 2013
Foreigners and Chinese Working Together: A Local Perspective (Summer 2013, ChinaSource Quarterly)
As a Chinese Christian, Jenny has worked alongside foreigners in Christian organizations for over a decade. She opens her heart and shares insights from a Chinese perspective to help new workers (and those already in China) avoid points of misunderstanding and friction as they serve with local brothers and sisters.
Taylor Gorman
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July 12, 2013
Changing China, Continuing Challenges (Summer edition, ChinaSource Quarterly)
This new context for China ministry raises a host of questions for anyone committed to long-term ministry in China. Ministry goals and strategies that were formed in the 1990sand in some cases in the 1980smay no longer be appropriate for the conditions and needs of the Chinese church today. Models of cooperation and partnership that were developed to aid a church with little money and few qualified ministers no longer fit the current realities. Even questions as fundamental as, "How do Christians relate to society?" need to be reconsidered in post-Olympic China. For those already deeply engaged in China service, there is a great need for reevaluation.
Taylor Gorman
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July 5, 2013
Building a Chinese Church Culture (June 26, 2013, Chinese Church Voices)
Whether or not the church can be accepted in society depends upon the image of the church in society, and the establishment of the churchs image is likewise dependent on the culture of the church. Society cant see the faith of the church; they see only the outward expression of that faith through its culture. The kind of culture the church has will therefore determine what kind of image they have within society.
Taylor Gorman
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June 27, 2013
Beijing to Require Certificate of No Criminal Conviction for Foreigners Employment Licenses (June 19, 2013, US and China Visa Law Blog)
The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security has announced that employment license applicants will need to submit a certificate of no criminal conviction (also known as a police clearance letter) from their country of residence, effective July 1.
Taylor Gorman
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June 20, 2013
A Superpower And An Emerging Rival: A Look Ahead At China (June 13, 2013, NPR)
U.S.-China relations have deteriorated in recent years, amid growing concerns about cybersecurity and human rights. As part of TOTN's "Looking Ahead" series, The Economist's China editor Rob Gifford talks about the future relations between the world's two biggest economies.
Taylor Gorman
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June 13, 2013
Listen: Tiananmen Square, A 'Watershed' For Chinese Conversions To Christianity (June 3, 2013, Here & Now Radio)
Monday is the 23rd anniversary of China's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. And Professor Fenggang Yang of Purdue University says the crackdown set off a trend of conversions to Christianity in China.
Taylor Gorman
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June 7, 2013
A lot of nice-sounding words (May 24, 2013, The Economist)
CHEN GUANGCHENG is a blind Chinese activist who left his country a year ago, soon after taking refuge in the American embassy in Beijing. Mr Chen was in London recently to receive an award for his work defending the rights of rural Chinese women. The Economist's China Editor, Rob Gifford, caught up with him at the Houses of Parliament, to ask him about recent changes in China and about his own exile.
Taylor Gorman
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May 30, 2013
Encountering China (May 19, 2013, The China Story)
This essay was commissioned as a review of Kin-ming Lius edited volume, My First Trip to China: Scholars, Diplomats and Journalists Reflect on their First Encounters with China, Hong Kong: East Slope publishing, 2012. As it turns out, The China Story offers a more commodious destination for these reflections. My thanks to Linda Jaivin and Gloria Davies for their comments on draft versions of this essay.
Taylor Gorman
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May 23, 2013
China Rising (May 4, 2013, Al Jazeera)
Special Series: After centuries of western dominance, the worlds centre of economic and political weight is shifting eastward. In just 30 years, China has risen from long-standing poverty to being the second largest economy in the world faster than any other country in history. From angry farmers to weary migrant workers, powerful politicians and everyone in between, what China says and does, has become of undeniable importance to the entire world.
Taylor Gorman
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May 9, 2013
Chinese Church Voices: 10 Observed Trends on Chinese Christian Media (April 17, 2013, ChinaSource)
In June of 2012, ChinaSource launched a blog called Chinese Church Voices where we have been posting translations of content taken from Mainland Christian online sources websites, blogs, and micro-blogs. Our goal is to help give outsiders a chance to "listen in on the conversations" that Chinese Christians are having online. I recently went back through the articles that we have posted to see if there were any observable trends.
Taylor Gorman
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April 19, 2013
Insight: The backroom battle delaying reform of China's one-child policy (April 8, 2013, Reuters)
Two retired senior Chinese officials are engaged in a battle with one another to sway Beijing's new leadership over the future of the one-child policy, exposing divisions that have impeded progress in a crucial area of reform. [] Former State Councilors Song Jian and Peng Peiyun, who once ranked above cabinet ministers and remain influential, have been lobbying China's top leaders, mainly behind closed doors: Song wants them to keep the policy while Peng urges them to phase it out, people familiar with the matter said. Their unresolved clash could suggest the leadership remains torn over one of China's most divisive social issues, said a recently retired family planning official. How quickly it is settled may shed light on whether new President Xi Jinping will ease family-planning controls on a nation of 1.3 billion people.
Taylor Gorman
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April 11, 2013