Caught by the corona virus on our holiday - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Business analyst Shaun Rein was with his family on a well-deserved holiday as the fallout of the corona virus crisis caught up with his trip. Panic is spreading over the world, especially now in the US. Rein is back in Shanghai and feels himself more safe than in some of the countries he has been in over the past few months, he tells at CGTN, although there is a lot room for improvement in China too.

CGTN:

With over 145 countries in the grip of the global pandemic and many nations imposing extreme travel restrictions, international tourism is perhaps the last thing on an individual's mind right now. However, this wasn't the case in late January, when Shaun Rein and his family left for an African safari to celebrate the Chinese New Year holidays. 

"When the coronavirus hit China, we had already planned our safari to Tanzania and Kenya. So, actually on January 24, we were on an airplane going to see lions, and rhinoceroses, and elephants in Africa. And so, we went there, and we had a wonderful 10 days," Rein, the founder of the China Market Research Group and an author of three books on China, told CGTN Digital in a WeChat video interview. 

Back in China, Wuhan in Hubei Province – the epicenter of the outbreak – was put under lockdown on January 23 but the world hadn't yet grasped the global implication of the contagion. The situation rapidly aggravated over the next week with thousands of cases emanating from different parts of China and a few from abroad persuading the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare COVID-19 a global healthcare emergency on January 30. In the days since, several airlines suspended their flights to and from China. 

"We were getting concerned each day as the number of cases in Wuhan and Hubei and the rest of China were slowly creeping up. And then at the end of our safari, on February 6, my wife and son were trying to fly back from Dubai but their Emirates flight to Shanghai was cancelled," Rein said, remembering the first instance he realized that they were stranded. 

Rein has lived in China for the past 23 years and authored three best-selling books on the miraculous growth story of the world's second-largest economy. 

From Dubai, Rein left for Australia where he had to deliver a speech while his family went to neighboring Oman. Later, his flight from Australia to China was cancelled too. "I went to Melbourne and Sydney and then transited through Bangkok before meeting my family in Oman. And for the last six weeks, we ended up travelling around the Middle East, from country to country to find safe haven. Also, when our visas ran out, we had to move to another country," he said, recalling the days as "exiles" in foreign lands. 

"So, for most of the last three and a half weeks, we were actually in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a kingdom (emirate) called Ajman. Then we decided that it probably would be safest to come back to China because we've been impressed with how the Chinese government has dealt with the situation," he added.

More on his trips at CGTN.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Christians return from China's diaspora - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Religion is on the rise in China, despite worries from the government. China's diaspora's are a source of Christianians, as a growing number of Chinese return home with their newly found religious feelings, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, at CNN in a story on Kenya.

CNN:

It is not only the Chinese in Kenya who are embracing Christianity. Many Chinese students in America, Australia and the UK are returning home Christian, says Ian Johnson, author of "The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao." Their conversion chimes with a broader trend at home: China itself is on track to be the world's biggest Christian nation by 2030, by some estimates.

For much of the 20th century, Chinese citizens were taught to worship the founding father of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong, the revolutionary leader who destroyed much of the nation's Buddhist and Taoist religious infrastructure during the Cultural Revolution. "There used to be 900 temples in Beijing alone," says Johnson. "Now there are 20."...

Mao's death in 1976 left the Chinese searching for a new value system. Christianity seemed fresh and modern to the country's newly urban residents, Johnson says, although more people in China are still Buddhist. 

By 2017, there were between 93 million and 115 million Christians in China -- around 5% of the country's population -- but fewer than 30 million practice in official churches, according to Purdue University scholar Yang Fenggang. If those estimates pan out, there would now be almost as many Christians in China as there are members of the Communist Party, which had an estimated 90 million members in 2016. 

That has riled the government. Under President Xi Jinping rhetoric has grown on the need to "Sinicize" religions perceived to be Western, despite the fact many Christians in China do not feel "un-Chinese or foreign," says Johnson.

Today, only state-sanctioned Christian organizations are legal in China. Overcrowded state churches run as many as 5 services a day and their pastors' wages are paid by the government, says Johnson. The alternatives are so-called house churches which operate illegally but can offer a more personal ministry, with pastors on first-name terms with their congregation...

In Chinese state media, the clampdown on faith goes largely unreported and Christianity is "virtually invisible," says Johnson -- the government doesn't want to "encourage anyone to think about religion."

More at CNN.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Mark Obama Ndesandjo discusses Kenya, the US, China and his family

Mark Obama Ndesandjo

Shenzhen-based Mark Obama Ndesandjo, half-brother of Barack Obama, talks at Nanfang TV about this experiences in Kenya, the US and China, and his meetings with this half-brother. Mark recently published his book An Obama's Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery across Three Cultures.

Mark Obama Ndesandjo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form

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