The Beast From the East? ...Or, am I "Off the Mark?"

DISCLAIMERS

sigh
Okay. I've been avoiding this one for a while.
Partly because religious issues of any kind are always hotly contestable, since not everyone follows the same beliefs (or any beliefs at all).
Partly because even among believers in the same religion, prophecy is a subject that becomes even MORE divisive, and Endtime Prophecy among Christians is something that is almost always sure to start heated debates.
Partly because I needed to establish a basis for discussions on China in the first place before even diving into something of this scale.
And partly because... well, frankly, of all the entries I've posted about China, this will be the one I'm least certain of. There are arguments that could be made against it and yeah, even as I type it, I can think of a lot of them and I don't have rebuttals for them.
So, with all that having been said, here are two disclaimers.

1. While most of my posts are political and deal in strictly concrete facts, this one strays well into the realm of religion, and yes, as a Christian (albeit not always a very good one) I DO, very assuredly, proceed from the assumption that the prophecies to which I give reference are, in fact, true. If that isn't something you want to read, cheers. Catch ya next post.
2. I'm very well aware that trying to interpret prophecy is often a fool's errand. Indeed, the only SURE thing we're told about the Endtimes from the New Testament was that we WON'T see it coming. "Watch, for you know not the hour," we're told. Indeed, it seems like every month there is some televangelist pounding his pulpit and proclaiming that he has deciphered the mysteries of Revelation, mysteries hidden from wiser men than him for the past 2,000 years. And each time, their predictions turn out to be wrong, and they look like idiots. I'm not presenting this as "this is what God Himself revealed to me." I'm presenting it as "hey, here's what I've seen and here's what the Book says, and the resemblance is unsettling." That's it. Nothing more, and nothing less.

So, there you have it. If you're still reading, hang on because from here it gets kind of chilling.

The Red Dragon

And another sign appeared in Heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads.
-Revelation 12:9

In my previous entries, I made three main points about China. The first is that the CCP is purely and unabashedly evil and not afraid to show it, the second is that China is actually not nearly as strong as everyone thinks, economically or militarily, and the third was that in spite of that weakness, the illusion of strength is rapidly propelling them into a position of global dominance. This meteoric (and seemingly impossible) rise to leadership by a nation that lacks any of what intelligence analyst George Friedman calls "Deep Power" has left me with a nagging concern, a concern which I dismissed as a flight of fancy. Then, as other eerie coincidences began to stack up under the Xi regime (a crackdown on Christianity, a rapid drive toward a digital currency under state control, the social credit system), I found the question getting more difficult to dismiss: could China's rise, which is unexplainable by conventional wisdom, be decreed by God? Could the CCP regime of China, and its suddenly emergent dictator, Xi Jinpeng, be the Endtime regime we were warned of in Revelation? Could China's unsettling "Big-Data" state be coalescing into the foretold Mark of the Beast? Certainly some of the signs are there. Their symbol is a serpentine dragon (Revelation 12:13-17), their color is red (Revelation 17:3), but then again, both of those could have been said about Great Britain once upon a time, with her Welsh Dragon and her Redcoat Uniforms.
I needed more information, and in truth, I still do. But, the thought just never went away, so here is my addmittedly incomplete analysis (which will end with a major question mark).
And I suppose it's a sign of how disconnected I am from the mainstream internet over here, but I actually did not have a clue that there are many others who have come to a similar conclusion, as I discovered when I typed "Mark of the Beast, China" into a google image search to find a cover photo for this article.
To begin with, I'd like to focus on what this Mark of the Beast is foretold to be.

And he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as should not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
-Revelation 13:15-17

From this, we get some basic criteria by which the Mark can be recognized.

1. There will be an entity claiming to be a deity (and, as we're shown earlier in Revelation 12:17, this self-proclaimed deity will engage in a massive campaign to stamp out Christianity).
2. The Mark will be obtainable only by swearing loyalty to this figure.
3. Anyone without it will be unable to buy or sell.
4. It will be on (some translations have said "in," but it's usually understood as "on") the hand of everyone of every station in life.

So the question to be answered is whether there is something going on in China that fulfills these criteria.

"Gloria Xi-su Christo"

I think I've already mentioned this a few times, but Chinese State Media is not even trying to hide this. The Chinese Government is, for all intents and purposes, attempting to proclaim that Xi Jinpeng is a god. Now so far that's god with a lowercase "g." The role traditionally ascribed to God with a capital G is reserved for the Party itself. The Chinese government has decided Christianity is a threat because there are, at present, more professed Christians than CCP members living in China. I'll bet THAT little detail didn't make it into most Western news now did it? But by the numbers, it's true. So, as the CCP grows leary of Christians, they have started to crack down on them, while of course claiming that it is not the Party but the general population who "feel a sense of crisis" about having Christianity around. So to deal with this "sense of crisis," the CCP has stepped up their anti-Christian rhetoric. It began by referring to all forms of religion as "superstition" and even going so far as to say "sorcery." That was nothing new. China has been an officially atheist state since Mao, only developing a mild tolerance for religion in recent decades. Reverting to a "no God allowed" state wouldn't have raised many eyebrows by itself.
But this time, they doubled down on it. This time, they have not only said "you must take down your photos of Jesus if you want to receive aid." They have added "and you must put up photos of Xi Jinpeng in their place." Officials were quoted as saying people had been "tricked" into believing Jesus, and not the Communist Party, was their savior, and they actually used the word "savior" there. A twitter account of a Chinese official even boasted of "turning believers in Jesus into believers in the Party."
So... an individual claiming to be a deity? Check.

Open, Sesame!

I'm pretty sure nearly anyone reading this has done enough research on China to have heard of the "Sesame Points" system. Basically, it is a way that is being tested right now along two parallel (and competing) tracks, one by Ali Baba Group and one by Tencent, to assign everyone in China a "social credit score." This is like the equivalent of the Western Credit Rating, but it does not merely rate financial activities. It shows "good citizenship," meaning, how loyal you are to the CCP. Posting things that the CCP likes on your social media, participating in State Initiatives... these will raise your credit rating. Posting things the CCP does not like (such as, say, visiting my Steemit account) will lower your score. Put simply, China's Data-surveillance network is highly sophisticated enough that very little gets past it, especially with nearly all financial transactions being done through social media provider WeChat (more on that later). These guys make the NSA look like amateurs. And rest assured, China has been known to block people's WeChat accounts for posts they deemed "seditious." I can personally attest to having my account locked down simply for typing the words "don't give me this Mao shit" into a WeChat message. The central system detected "Mao" and "shit" side by side, and I got a message stating I had to go down to the PSB office and explain myself if I wanted my account open again.
So in summary, participation in China's digital society (which is becoming increasingly dependent upon two main companies: TenCent and Ali Baba) is contingent upon remaining loyal and obedient to the CCP. I must deviate into the realm of speculation here for a moment, but it's not difficult to imagine that farther down the line, a low Social Credit rating will result in one's WeChat or Alipay accounts being locked.
Obtainable only through "worship" of the self-proclaimed deity? Check.
But what does a social media platform have to do with the Mark of the Beast? Well, let's get to that next.

Sorry, We Don't Take Cash

If your most recent visit to China was more than two years ago (or if you've never come here) then this one will come as a bit of a shock, but Beijing is rapidly becoming a "No Cash Allowed" zone. A few years back, Chinese tech giant Tencent started testing a thing called "WeChat Wallet." Essentially, you link your WeChat account to your bank account and then send money to others by either scanning a QR code and typing in the amount to send, or generating a QR code and letting others scan you. There was another, parallel system by Al Baba Group called "Alipay," but I've never needed used that one, since it was mainly tailored to those who already do a lot of shopping on aliexpress. At first I thought "oh, that'll never catch on." Well, it did. Within 24 months, everyone in Beijing was using this. I have been to restaurants right here in central Beijing who will no longer take debit cards (not even Chinese Unionpay debit cards), and I have seen a few vendors who won't even take cash because they don't want to carry around enough cash to make change. It's also the central payment system that is used to pay utility bills, order food delivered, they are developing a link between this and CTrip so travel tickets and hotel bookings can be made using it... essentially, your WeChat account or your Alipay account are now your wallet. It was not too surprising to see that the CCP has been pushing this.
Add one final detail to this puzzle. China is developing their own, government-issued, digital currency: the so-called "crypto-yaun."
Now then, it's easy to see where this is going. In the section above, I mentioned that the Social Credit System was first developed along two competing tracks: Tencent and Ali Baba. So here, we have China testing a digital transaction system along two competing tracks through the same system. The pattern that is forming is this: China lets these two tech giants compete to develop something, then takes control over the aspects of the two systems that work. All they have to do now to complete the centralization of the digital payment system is digitize the currency itself and presto. Expand the existing apps (WeChat and Alipay) to pay using CryptoYuan, ban all other forms of payment, and make it illegal to transact with cryptoyuan on any other app, and suspend the app accounts of anyone deemed disloyal, as they already do. The CCP has thus created a system where if you are deemed disloyal, you cannot receive money or spend money.
Without the Mark you can neither buy nor sell? Check.

But Is it Global?

Simply put, no. This is where this entire chain of thought (at least at the moment) hits a snag. None of this is global. China is so insulated and isolated, electronically, culturally and economically, from the rest of the world that most of the world does not even realize this stuff is in the works. Why should they? It's only for transactions in China. The Mark of the Beast would, by definition, have to be global.
But, what if China is working on making that so?
This entire section is about 80% speculation, but... what if China's economic and infrastructure development plan (the much-lauded "Belt and Road Initiative" succeeds in making the Cryptoyuan the world's reserve currency? Frankly, there's no logical reason why China should be able to achieve that, given how far behind their economy currently lags compared to the U.S. or the EU, but then again, there was no logical reason for China to be able to be in the global position they are in in the first place. So we have to ask, can it happen? Is it happening?
Well, if that happens, then for anyone to do any significant trading at all, they would have to use China's currency, which, as I've outlined in the previous sections, would only be available through WeChat or Alipay. And, of course, if the CCP felt the need to suspend your account, they have ironclad control over these two tech companies and can do so, making you unable to receive or spend Cryptoyuan. Ask yourself this: in today's world, if you could neither obtain nor legaly spend U.S. Dollars, how economically viable would you be? So if China's yet-to-be-made-but-in-the-works cryptoyuan becomes the world's reserve currency...
I rest my case.
So then, item number 4 cannot be checked off... yet.

I've got to admit, all this by itself did not convince me so I can't blame you if it doesn't convince you, but here are a few other seemingly unrelated details that just seem to point back in this direction.

"That's Totally 666!"

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
-Revelation 13:18

I want to drop a little factoid into your lap that quite literally took the wind out of me when I discovered it.
Here in China, 666 is a slang term for "impressive" or "fantastic," roughly the equivalent of calling something "cool" in the west.
It's a pun, basically, based on the fact that the Chinese word for 6, pronounced "liu," sounds similar to a word that means "incredible." If I'd read that o line I wouldn't have bought it. I encountered it when one of my fifth grade students, upon discovering that I'd been a cop, threw up the L-shaped hand sign for the number 6 (if anyone remembers "hang loose, goose" from back in the '80's, it's the same hand sign) three times and shouted "whoa, you are liu liu liu." My Chinese at that time had only just hit the point where I recognized the number (even now I have to admit wo bu hui shuo Putonghua hao) so I asked him what it meant. There are not many times in my life when I have been physically stunned by a fact, but that was one of them.
So, if a politician rose in China who could somehow make 666 a symbol for his name, he'd have instant star appeal. As I type this, I'm trying to see what the three characters in Xi Jinping's name look like in Hanzi to see if, by any chance, they have six brush strokes each. I think the third one has 5, so I'm leaning toward "no."

On Your Hand, or In Your Hand?

So what we have so far is a system that fulfills three out of the four criteria for the Mark of the Beast. We haven't established yet who the "Beast" is, but an environment ripe for his entrance (where "666" means "cool") has been shown. But the system described above is on your phone. We're given the impression from Revelation that it will be an actual mark on your skin, right? So, where does that leave us? Some kind of microchip? Well, not necessarily.
Ever heard of a Circet bracelet?

This is a device (or will be a device; it turned out that the prototype hasn't been made yet but it's in development) which uses technology I don't have time to explain to project your smartphone onto your arm. Far less invasive and more fashionable (and thus more consumer-acceptable) than a microchip, right? Why, it's downright trendy!
...Or, at least, it will be, once it is released. Give it a few years.
But wait a minute. That device could project your QR code onto your arm, but how would you scan anyone else's QR code with it?
Well, you couldn't. But remember, Revelation 13:16 said the MArk would be on the hand or the forehead, right? Check Out these new smart sunglasses Chinese cops are testing. I would imagine that same technology could be applied to putting a QR scanner into a pair of shades and bluetoothing them to your phone. Generate a QR code and project it onto your hand, the other party scans your QR code using their handy-dandy sunglasses that are "just so totally liu liu liu," and as long as your digital wallet hasn't been frozen by the CCP (for such crimes as "tricking people into believing Jesus, and not the CCP, is their savior), then that's all it takes to transact money.
Again, it's a few years away, but... well, look what country it's being tested in. Once it's available to the public, it'll be mainstream in a matter of weeks.
And finally, there is this little tidbit.

He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast could both speak and cause as many as did not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
Revelation 13:15

I won't dwell too much on this one, but when I read "give life to the image" of the beast, given that "the beast" is supposed to be a man, my first thought is "robot." Well, so far there's not a lot of Human-looking or Human-acting androids out there, but... well, can I be blunt for a second?
China has a lot of horny and lonely men (google "China's bachelor crisis" for the full story, but basically, One-Child Policy + easy abortion access + a culture even more wildly patriarchal than the West ever thought of being = lots of sons and no daughters), and they have come up with a rather unique way of solving that problem. Now, as laughable (and seemingly irrelevant) as that is, consider this. The logical direction this will lead, especially when taken in tandem with China's far more serious research into AI, is that China will work toward developing Human simulacrum robots. I'll admit, the jump from a sex-droid to an avatar of the Antichrist who will kill you if you don't swear loyalty to the CCP is kind of a stretch, but... robotics. Once a technology is out of Pandora's box, it's applications are endless.
Hey, I did say a lot of this article was speculation, right?

So, How Do You Fight a Dragon?

The next logical question would be "if this is all true (and I admit that I'm not certain, so that's a big "if"), then China is destined to conquer for a while and there's no point fighting them, right?"
Wrong!
Have a look at this.

The kings of the Earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, stand at a distance for fear of her torment saying 'Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgement has come.'
And all the merchants of the Earth will weep and mourn for her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore:
-Revelation 18:9-11

So, yeah, it was with tongue firmly in cheek that I noted the verses on that last quote were 9 through 11. I would imagine there are millions who latched onto that to say it was the foretelling of the 2001 WTC attack.
Frankly though, I doubt it.

In short, in Endtime prophecies from Daniel through Revelation, we're told that a regime of unimaginable global power will utterly and ruthlessly dominate the world near the end of time, but we're also told that the very nations who did business with her will turn on her and rip her to pieces. The image we're given (and I'd have to look up the verse number) is that they will "see that she is naked and filthy."
Hmm... Sounds to me like a lot of nations got tired of being bullied around by a nation whose power was an illusion, doesn't it?
Maybe China is the Endtime regime, and maybe it's just another in a long-line of wannabe empires run by petty dictators. I can't be certain. There are signs of pointing to yes, but there are also signs pointing to no (and to the idea that the Endtime regime will instead be an ISIS successor state of some kind that infects the Turkish Government: don't laugh until you read up on the Ottoman Empire), which I don't have time to go into in this article. Either way, China is getting really arrogant and aggressive, and her aggression is making her a lot of enemies among nations more than capable of punching through her facade of invincibility and reducing her to ruins. And that, if you'll forgive a cliffhanger, will have to be for my next entry.