The semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong is no longer semi-autonomous, at least in practice. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), circumventing Hong Kong’s parliament and courts, passed the Hong Kong National Security Law on June 30 that effectively…

Hong Kong: Tech Companies Face Serious Ethical Decisions

For the Chinese Communist Party, SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus) has provided an opportunity to expand its massive surveillance system.
The current extensive network of facial recognition cameras has left some gaps. People could avoid recognition, for…

China’s Health Code App: One More Way to Track Citizens

While countries around the world have been dealing with the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), China has claimed disputed areas in the South China Sea, taken over the Hong Kong government, and flown planes over Taiwan.
One result was a standoff…

The Age of the Wolf Warrior: China’s Post-Pandemic Strategy

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Racial injustice, viral pandemics, job loss–Is God there? Does he see? The Psalms have many prayers of lament that ask these very…

A Lament for Our Nation

Language matters and it is sometimes used in a confusing way. For example, we hear talk of “killing” viruses, even at sites sponsored by medics But, unlike bacteria, viruses are not alive. COVID-19 is RNA encased in a lipid membrane. So the sentence…

Making Sense of the Numbers Behind COVID-19

The United States has formally accused China of both funding and operating cells of hackers who infiltrate research labs working on responses to COVID-19. From a statement released jointly by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s…

The New Cyber Cold War with China

It is widely recognized that medical professionals and journalists in China are being silenced if they publish any information about COVID-19 that contradicts the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official narrative. But now mainland Chinese…

COVID-19: Getting to the Bottom of What Happened in China

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said, “It’s tragically fitting that we’re talking at the beginning of Holy Week because this is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly.”
I had been thinking about the…

Meditation on Holy Week in the Midst of a Pandemic

Since totalitarian movements exist in a world which itself is nontotalitarian, they are forced to resort to what we commonly regard as propaganda.
U.S. Intelligence reports that China has misrepresented the extent of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.…

The Dragon’s Deception: Conspiracy Theories and False Numbers

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 has spread throughout the world with the number of cases increasing daily, both due to spread and to extended testing. We have provided links to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s websites that…

Coronavirus: Explanations and Ethical Issues

As the world reels amid the COVID-19 (formerly, coronavirus) pandemic, the government of China wants us to know that 1) the virus didn’t originate in China and 2) President Xi stopped it in its tracks. And that we should all be thankful to him.
The…

China: Rewriting the History of COVID-19

Students and employees in China, like many across the globe, are adjusting to learning or working from home under quarantine in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the app that the Chinese school system is using has angered many…

DingTalk: Where the “Teacher” Really Is Always Watching You

I wrote two articles for Mind Matters on China’s censorship and surveillance practices amidst the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak (here and here). After writing these articles, I had several people ask me about the coronavirus and whether I was…

The 2019 Coronavirus Spread More Than I Thought It Would

Could "Brains-in-a-Dish" Become Self-Aware?
Cerebral organoids made Discover magazine’s list of top science stories in 2019.1 First discovered in 2013, cerebral organoids, dubbed “mini-brains” or “brains-in-a-dish,” made the headlines because two…

Mindless Attempts

New documents known as the Karakax List, leaked by Uyghur journalists, reveal how the government of China determines who will be sent to one of the country’s detention camps in the Xinjiang province (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). For…

China: Sophisticated Surveillance Decides Who Gets Sent to Uyghur Camps

Journalist Angela Chen recounts a story that sums up the information problem many Chinese citizens face with respect to the cornavirus outbreak:
When Linda logged in to the Chinese social network Weibo on Monday, she saw a curious post from the…

Coronavirus in a World Without Trust

When coronavirus (2019-nCoV) first broke out, the Chinese government responded by quarantining journalists, citizen, and doctors who said “SARS is back”—or said anything at all about the pneumonia-like virus online. China downplayed the virus to the…

Censorship? But Coronavirus Doesn’t Care!

Article ID: JAR3412 | By: Heather Zeiger
Love Thy Body
Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality
by Nancy R. Pearcey
(Baker, 2018)
This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 41, number 2 (2018). For further…

Broken Hearts, Broken Bodies a book review of Love Thy Body Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality by Nancy R. Pearcey

Taiwan’s recent presidential election (January 11, 2020) featured the largest voter turnout in its history as a democracy. Incumbent Tsai Ing-wen (right, courtesy 蔡英文官方元首肖像照), a pro-democracy progressive gained a clear victory. Tsai supported the…