While the world’s news eyes focus on the renewed effort by Washington to solidify a formal peace between Israel and Palestinians the real diplomatic coup of our times is in the making with hardly a notice in the Western press. Regardless of China’s public expression that their influence over North Korea is limited by international norms and respect for the sovereignty of other nations, the Chinese need peace on the Korean Peninsula to make their “One Belt One Road” initiative a reality. Mere days after the election of Moon Jae-in as President of South Korea, China has reached out to strengthen bilateral ties with the focus on creating the right conditions for a mutually beneficial relationship with the North. Perhaps coincidently, perhaps not, President Moon Jae-in will open public hearings on the legality of the THAAD anti-missile system deployed in South Korea, a system the Chinese oppose. China has left little doubt their peace initiative between the Koreas means without the United States. A series of articles in the Chinese press lays the cause of current tension between the North and the South at the feet of the United States. The articles hint that China doubts the United States has the national character to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula.
What makes the Korean Peninsula political environment and its impact on China so interesting to Christian eschatology is the association of China with the lion in Daniel chapter seven (See post Times – They Are A-Changin April 10, 2017 for more details). Daniel 7:4 tells that the lion has wings which are subsequently plucked off. It is made to stand like a man and is given the heart of a man. The winged lion is an excellent representation of China’s political stance in the world to date. China has relied on its reputation of self-defined restraint stemming from some mythical national respect for other nations sovereignty to soar above conflict, portraying itself as the adult in the room. But the wings are coming off and not by anybody’s doing but China’s.
The veneer of respect for other nations sovereignty is vanishing with the unilateral move to build artificial islands with military bases in contested areas of the South China Sea. An now this hands on bid to bring an understanding of peace to the Korean Peninsula. If “One Belt, One Road” is to be a reality then China must provide more than economic muscle, it must provide stability. The most unpredictable obstacle to China’s hegemony in the South China Sea and the Korean Peninsula, and therefore China’s influence to affect stability, is the Presidency of Donald Trump. China must standup and minimize the influence of the United States in Asia to protect its fledgling project called “One Belt, One Road”. If China is the lion of Daniel seven then look for China to thwart the influence of the United States and draw the nations affected by the renewed Silk Road under its control, much like a lion leads a pride.
The Book of Daniel reveals more about the events leading up to the Great Tribulation than any other book of the Bible. We are not to despair over the approach of the Great Tribulation signaled by the fulfillment of the prophecies of Daniel, rather we are to remember the words of Jesus about the end-times. When we see all these things coming together, look up for our redemption is drawing near (Luke 21:28).
May God bless you in your study of His word.