PANIC MODE: Mass Exodus of International Companies from China as Christian Persecution Increases
Huge panic is sweeping across China today, as a mass exodus of companies decide to leave. China’s persecution against Christians seems to be hurting their bottom line.
As China has refocused their attention to persecute Christians, the economy has been suffering greatly. Christianity and business have both been growing exponentially in China for several decades, but the increased persecution and lack of freedom for Christians reverberates throughout the nation, making investors feel uneasy.
Both political scientists and economists agree that religious liberties are essential to economic growth.
As China wages a relentless war against the church, major companies are taking notice and walking away. They do not plan to go back. It has started an ABC movement for companies (Anywhere But China).
Printer Giants Brother, Kyocera, and Fuji Xerox have left China and moved their production to Vietnam. Sharp is soon to follow.
Hasbro Inc., the world’s largest toymaker, which has licenses for popular franchises such as “Frozen” and the “Avengers”, is also embracing ABC and moving away from China. “We’re increasingly spreading our footprint and adding new geographies for production globally”, Chief Executive Officer Brian Goldner said on a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings. “So we feel very good about where we’re going.”
Major electronics producers are also embracing ABC. Samsung moved all of their smartphone production out of China and now their PCs, laptops, and television production lines are following.
Japan is China’s second largest trading partner, but that might be changing. Japan just made an ABC contribution by offering 87 major companies massive subsidies, totaling over US $653 million, to move their production out of China. Japan is drawing up a second list of companies to encourage them to also leave China.
Donald Trump’s trade war has been imposing tariffs on goods made in China. Many companies that have been on the fence about leaving China are seeing massive benefits to moving their manufacturing to places like Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, etc to avoid American tariffs.
The trend is shaking China’s production complex.
BTJ has been working in production for two decades producing electronics, textiles, humanitarian supplies, etc for the mission field. We have seen the winds of ABC pick up and have moved some of our production to places like Cambodia and Vietnam.
The coronavirus revealed to the world how dangerous it was to rely on China as the genesis of their supply chain. When the coronavirus started to spread around the world, governments thought twice before criticizing China’s COVID-19 response; China is the go-to source for all the medical supplies that they needed, like medications, ibuprofen, hazmat suits, rubber gloves, surgical masks, ventilators, and even testing kits.
Chinese Christians are factory owners, business managers, bankers, fund managers, computer engineers, inventors, factory workers… and they are poised to help bring back production and jump start the economy in China again. Perhaps it is time that we learn the greatest lesson from the Communist Revolution – persecuting Christians does not make China stronger, it makes China weaker.
3 Comments
God is alive and still watching over us, His Chosen people. May my Godhead bless you and all.lfmyour individual families as well, with Spiritual blessings.
Leaving China is not the answer from a Christian standpoint. This is purely a capitalist, gain driven decision. It’s a shame that this article mingles these two, very different things. Christianity is ultimately against capitalist values.
Annette, you are obviously not very familiar with the vision of Back to Jerusalem. BTJ is not leaving China – we live in China – BTJ is a Chinese vision and China is the headquarters for our organization. Businesses are leaving China. This is a fact and we reported it and we also reported why, because anyone who looks at history will see that economic freedom and religious freedom go hand-in-hand. It is the difference between the misery index in North Korea and South Korea. It is the difference between Sudan and South Africa. Where religious freedom does not exist – economic freedom does not exist -AND – where economic freedom does not exist – businesses do NOT do well and LEAVE. I know so many people like to think that business owners like to sing kumbaya and their livelihood will simply fall from a tree, but businesses are not altruistic in nature. Their job is to make money and support their families. If you lose money – you will not be in business very long. END.OF.STORY. This is why we have businesses in North Korea and secular companies do not. This why we have businesses in Iran and most secular companies do not. Our focus is to preach the Gospel and business provides a platform for that – but if our goal was to purely make money there is no way on God’s green earth we would be building business in Iran or North Korea, because you are guaranteed to lose money. I know. I have started more businesses in Iran,North Korea (and China) than any single sane person on earth. Any good student of history understands that nations hurt their economy and their people when they persecute Christians because economic freedom and religious freedom go hand-in-hand. YOU CANNOT HAVE ONE AND NOT THE OTHER. When China launched a war against Christians their religious freedom index score dropped considerably. With that – their economic freedom index score also dropped significantly. When that happens, major companies are no longer in a secure environment needed to foster investment SO THEY LEAVE.