While our attention has been fixed on Putin’s relentless attacks on journalists, not to mention any independent thinking in Russia, and Netanyahu’s attempts to use the Hamas attack to protect himself politically, out in the South China Sea, 620 miles from the Chinese mainland what could have been an incendiary situation seems to have calmed down, at least for now.
Aggressively claiming that the islands and shoals belong to China, and old World War II ship 105 miles west of Palawan, part of the Philippines, has been the subject of clashes between the Chinese Coast Guard and Filipino interests.
For years, China has been creating islands in the South China Sea, with the goal of extending its territorial claims. What Putin does clumsily by sending journalists off to jail, China has done efficiently with its internal surveillance network, enabling it to monitor phone conversations of its populace. And we go on, buying Chinese products.
Prayer for the Day
Some still yearn for a previous age with myths of Fortress America,
But that was never a reality even back in its time;
Have we not learned, O God, how small our planet really is,
Caught up in conflicting claims and environmental disaster?
Wake us up, O Lord, so we recognize that what one does affects all,
For we are no longer atoms encased in our own bell jars.
In the name of the One who broadens our vision,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is no walk in the park or mere drum-beating or gong-clanging.
Xi Jinping, General Secretary o the Chinese Communist Party
There isn't a secret room like in a James Bond movie where all the leaders meet; it's not like that. It's like a big corporation that has different companies, and each company does its own thing, but they have loose ties, and they cooperate when it's convenient.
Anne Applebaum, American journalist, historian, from Autocracy, Inc.:
O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.
At the sound of tumult, peoples fled; before your majesty, nations scattered.
Spoil was gathered as the caterpillar gathers, as locus leap, they leaped upon it.
Isaiah 33: 3-4