Social media posts are blowing up with anti-data center protests and China could not be happier. Regular, everyday Americans are taking to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to share their resistance to the idea of massive, dirty, polluting data centers in their backyard and whether they know it or not, China is supporting their efforts.
Western Christians have a lot to learn from Chinese underground house church Christians on this matter, because believers in China have been the victim of what happens when China controls all the big data.
Last year, a massive $40 billion Google data-center was built in Ellis County, Texas. The response by the local Texans was overwhelmingly positive to see an increase in the local workforce and infrastructure, but times have changed, because China has entered the propaganda game.
China sees data centers and AI as the key to controlling the future. Christians in China understand this more than anyone. Only last week, one of BTJ’s partners was arrested in China when big-data AI monitoring systems targeted him for financing illegal church activities.
Last week, BTJ hosted a meeting in the Middle East and Central Asia with Chinese missionaries. 30% of the Chinese missionaries were unable to attend the meeting after they received phone calls directly from the local authorities. After a closer look, it was clear that the CCP had used AI to predict their activities and pre-empt their travel plans.
The race for the control of the future of AI is real and it starts with the foundation of data-centers.
This week, BTJ attended the largest hackers conference in South America, where hundreds of young Christians came together to look for solutions to help Christians who live in persecuted nations. This is a major shift from missionaries who used to take canoes down remote Amazonian rivers to hand Bibles to unreached native tribes. This is a shift that impacts every Christian in the world today.
For years, the Chinese electronic monitoring system was just a thing Chinese Christians had to deal with, but today, China is focusing on world domination for AI. As the west becomes more open, Beijing’s data control operations appear to be evolving.
China wants to control AI, but rather than trying to persuade Americans to support China’s dominance directly, recent evidence suggests a growing emphasis on amplifying existing domestic disagreements, especially around the strategic subject of data centers.
Only last week, X reportedly uncovered a 200,000-strong Chinese bot farm that was being used to post disparaging content about data centers in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate among real American Christians regarding the future of AI and energy policies.
It is now being reported that a wealthy Marxist tycoon living in China is funding this Beijing-backed propaganda campaign in the U.S. to block construction of large computer data centers. According to the findings of the report, Neville Roy Singham, who lives in Shanghai, is funneling millions of dollars to the U.S. communist group Party for Socialism and Liberation to support an effort to turn Americans against the building of artificial intelligence and the data centers, which would give China the ability to take the lead and destroy all competition.
In June of this year, US Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas sent a letter to the Acting Attorney General requesting a congressional investigation into Communist China’s efforts to manipulate U.S. policy and public opinion on data centers.
The truth that is not being discussed in the public media is that AI infrastructure is vital to the future of Christian persecution. America could be likely to use AI against Christians as well, but it is not certain. China on the other hand has a proven track record that they will use the power of AI to go after Christians and persecute them. They are doing it now!
The CCP increasingly views AI leadership as a central determinant of future power. Chinese state media has criticized American data centers as environmentally damaging and economically costly, yet the Chinese government continues to build their own domestic AI infrastructure at a break-neck pace and the Chinese people get no say.
Of course most American Christians do not see China’s hand influencing their opinions. Many do not understand how much of their lives rely on data centers – from banking, to using navigation while driving their car, booking hotels and plane tickets, sending pictures to family members, sharing ideas at Bible studies, downloading music for Sunday worship, joining group chats at church, listening to podcasts on road trips, donating to their favorite mission, buying a coffee on their way to work, paying for health insurance, registering their children for school, buying gas at the pump, to getting a life-saving surgery. All of these things in our daily lives depend on data centers.
American Christians use data centers, no matter how low tech they might think they are, but they simply do not like the idea of data centers being built in their backyard.
However, if you ever meet someone who is against data centers in their backyard, ask where they should be built. My guessing is they will not have an answer.
China will have an answer.
