Why Christians should be keeping an eye on China’s growing influence

I remember trying to keep a straight face at the end of an otherwise excellent presentation by a Chinese professor. It was 25 years ago, and he’d spent a few months as a visiting academic at my UK tech organisation. On his last day, he gave a talk about disruptive changes. It was impressive - but his final slide left us open-mouthed. 

It showed curves representing the rise and fall of empires: first the Roman Empire (1st–4th centuries), then the British Empire (17th–20th centuries). By now our curiosity was piqued! His last curve was labelled simply “Rise of Chinese empire–21st century”. 

We all thought the same thing. What is he talking about?…China is a developing country. We were polite, but we struggled to suppress our smiles.  

We’re not laughing now. 

China, subject to famine as recently as the 1960s, has transformed itself in a few decades. And, even if our professor spoke tongue in cheek, our perceptions about China have equally transformed. China’s remarkable change is based on three pillars, and we need to understand these to grasp the astonishing extent of China’s rise.

China’s 3 pillars of influence 

Clearly, China is a manufacturing superpower. Major brands including Nike, Adidas and Uniqlo rely heavily on Chinese factories working at scale, making China the global hub for textiles. Products from Apple are assembled in massive factories in Shenzhen and, “iPhone city”, Zhengzhou. Indeed a quick look around your home will reveal many household goods manufactured or sourced in China. 

Second, China is a technology superpower. It’s not just about copying Western tech anymore. Innovation in Chinese companies such as ZTE and Huawei means that China now has more patents filed yearly than any other country. 

One example: In February, China’s “Deep Seek AI” made headline news worldwide. AI isn’t that new so why all the fuss? Because of two details: Western AI models like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini require “tier-1” chipsets, made in the USA and forbidden for export to China. However, Deep Seek used lower-grade chips and still created a highly performing AI.

Additionally, the developers claim they spent only $6 million training Deep Seek AI – compared to roughly $600 million training any Western AI. These two points mean that AIs could now be “commoditised” - produced at scale, no longer the domain of a handful of trillion-dollar Silicon Valley companies. 

However, my personal experience of competing with Chinese tech companies is that it was never a level playing field. Due to state sponsorship, these companies could offer pricing that Western companies could never match. 

But the third and most concerning pillar is that China is an influence superpower. There are several strands to this. 

Western universities including Cambridge, Oxford, and Imperial College accept substantial funding from Chinese entities. China also sponsors Confucius Institutes in Western universities - including the University of Edinburgh, Stanford, and Berlin - to promote Chinese language and culture. But this has sparked a stream of concerns and criticisms over the academic freedom of our institutes, not least when it comes to sensitive topics like Taiwan or human rights.  

To be fair, all countries engage in international “self-promotion”. For example, the UK does this through the British Council. But there are significant differences, not least the sheer scale of China’s involvement. 

The belt and road

Then, there’s China’s “Belt and Road” Initiative, a global infrastructure project, including developments of rail and road networks in Africa, such as the Mombasa–Nairobi Railway in Kenya. A highway across Kenya, built with Chinese money sounds great! But it comes with strings. Loans and cheap infrastructure to over 140 countries (including investment in the UK where we happily accept cheap supply chains), translates into political influence on a massive scale. 

Lastly, there are many concerns around surveillance - recall the 2020 UK government ban on Chinese suppliers to the UK’s 5G network, or the recent unease over Chinese ownership of TikTok. 

There is here a strategy of global influence using “soft power”. And we have not mentioned a fourth pillar, China’s rising status as a military superpower, with the world’s largest army and a growing nuclear arsenal. 

Why does it matter? 

Even if you leave aside accusations of surveillance and data tracking against China, it matters because our values matter.  

Western values such as compassion, equality, free-speech and human rights did not just evolve from nowhere, nor are they secular. The West’s moral outlook and values historically emerged from a Christian worldview. It’s the Christian heritage of Western societies that directly resulted in values we now take for granted.  

Glen Scrivener provides an excellent overview of where western values come from. As he aptly points out, even if you’ve never set foot in a church, western values are “in the air we breathe”, because of our Judeo-Christian heritage. 

China’s values are different to ours and emphasise, for example, stability, social order and long-term planning. They can plan for the next 50 years because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) knows they will still be in power in 50 years. Contrast that with our short-term political cycles of 4-5 years - it’s hard for us to plan anything long-term! But that’s because we prioritise democratic oversight, free speech and human rights. China also exercises state control of information, eg Google search results are blocked by the so-called “Great Firewall of China”. And try asking Deep Seek about the church in China - you’ll get a blank. 

The persecuted Church in China

For China, this has resulted in an authoritarian government where dissent is not tolerated, and there are many credible reports of human rights violations. One example of course is the persecution of Christians (and to be fair all religions) in China. China expects citizens to prioritise loyalty to the CCP and regards religion with suspicion.

Open Doors has listed China as one of the top countries for persecution of Christians for many years. CCP regard Christianity as a foreign influence and churches must be registered, their sermons monitored. Despite this, the church in China has grown remarkably with as many as 100 million Christians, many in underground churches.  

China’s civilisation is ancient and captivating - I’ve loved visiting - and in critical areas like climate change and poverty reduction, China is taking significant responsibility. Nevertheless, as citizens of the West, and as Christians, we must champion gospel values of accountability, justice, dignity, and freedom.

Avoiding conspiracy theories or nationalism, we must discern global shifts, and thoughtfully consider underlying motives behind funding, technology, and supply chains originating from very different ideologies - including China.