N.D. Wilson is Wrong about Tibetan Yak Butter (+ Trump Troubles Taiwan)

Welcome to the China Compass Podcast on the Fight Left Feast Network and the Christian podcast community. I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Bin. You can follow me on Twitter, ex at China Adventures where I post daily reminders to pray for China, pray for China.usforg. China.us is our prayer website there. Email any questions or comments to bfwesternatgmail.com and find all of the other resources we have available. Old books, old missionary books, biographies, different things. All of those are at praygivego.us. Too many websites I know I understand. Praygivego.us is the one place where you can find all the other stuff. Praygivego.us. I'm recording a little early this week. This is a Friday evening in Malaysia. Friday morning back in the USA. And where most of our listeners are, I guess USA in Canada primarily. I'm leaving in a few hours for the airport. Middle of the night I got to meet the airport super early for an early morning flight to India. By the time this goes live, I'll probably be in India. I'm trying to think when I'm going to post this. I'll probably be in India already when this show goes. Go live. And so excited about a few days in India. I'm not going to be there very long to be teaching in a couple of different places there. I had to be careful about any of these days. It's not quite as bad as China was. But definitely not the kind of place where I want to give out details of cities I'm going to be visiting in places I'm going to go and people I'm going to meet with. I've got to be prepared even to be potentially questioned at the airport when I go in and not to have certain things visible on my my phone and my the front screen of my phone or my laptop or whatever just to kind of have things a little bit. A little bit more cautious in preparation for that we've had friends numerous friends that we know getting trouble in India in the last few years. So trying to avoid that I've got a visa for India that still has a couple more years on it. Hopefully I'll be able to visit many more times and then extend that visa get a new visa for the future. That's the hope at least. And so yeah if you can pray for my time in India be wonderful. I can't give any more details than that like I said. And then I'll be back in the US for much of October have a bunch of meetings different places in the US again I can't give too many details but mostly Oklahoma if you're in Oklahoma and you do want to invite me to come somewhere and share it at a missions meeting or at a church. Especially like Wednesday night Sunday night I know most churches don't have those anymore but I love those kind of settings very casual and usually not that many people but people that are interested in hearing and knowing what's going on around the world and learning how to pray better for the persecuted church and different things. So if you're interested if you're in Oklahoma anywhere in Oklahoma especially that's where I'll be primarily and you can email me again BF Weston at gmail.com and you can I can come to where you are or I can tell you where I'm going to be already and you can go. And I'm in a 10 service in a few different places where I'm going to be there again in most of October and then later on November as well but that's that's too far in advance to really talk about. Now what I want to start out with today I thought I had this set up where it wouldn't be echoey in here but it still sounds echoey for some reason so it is what it is I don't really know what I'm doing as far as the technical side of things doing as best as I can. What I want to start with is something I heard on Indy Wilson's podcast whether it was today or yesterday I forget it was in the last day or so and he just starts going off about the beauties of yak butter the beauties of yak butter in relation he's giving an example trying to tell something in relation to the new Narnia movie that's being made the magician's nephew and the episode on stories or soul food that he is called glitter bomb Narnia glitter bomb. And they're critiquing obviously the new Narnia movie but in his critique he brings up yak butter it makes a point about yak butter and and everything so he makes a true some true comments I think it makes sense what he says in the context of how he says it but he makes some comments about yak butter that I felt couldn't just be left alone. Yak butter is not quite what he assumes it to be and I know this from experience and so I don't want him to be surprised someday visiting Tibet like his son just did that's that's the whole point as he said his son was just in central Asia back packing through for the summer with a friend which is true and I was in contact with his son at one point a couple different times by email to try to give them some advice on traveling through portions of Tibet and so whenever he mentioned that I'm like hey hey they were probably in one of the city. I'm not sure what the truth is that I recommended they go to unless they went a different I haven't heard back haven't heard a report from the trip I recommended a few different ways they could possibly go and I'm not sure which route they took through northern Tibet and so but anyway I would guarantee to know what place the story comes from and it goes and the story goes on about these Tibetan butter statues and idols that are carved out of Tibetan yak butter there and that's what indie Wilson is referring to anyway without any further ado I'm going to play a few clips from the book and I'm going to play a few clips from the book and I'm going to play a few clips from the book and I'm going to play a few clips from the book and I'm going to play a few clips from the book and I'm going to play a few clips from the book and I'm going to play a few clips from the book and I'm going to play a few clips from the book and I'm going to play a few clips from the book and I'm going to play clips from the show I really one longer clip five or six minute clip and I'm going to pause it as we go and make a few comments along the way it's a fascinating clip and there'll be some things to say amen to and some things to say wait wait wait no no no you're not going to that's not what it would taste like it's not what it would be anyway my critiques are mostly on the funny side and my agreements are more on the serious side of things. Imagine if somebody said I'm going to do the narniacronicles I have all the money in the world so I'm going to do the narniacronicles that's a musical sure a bunch of people would say I don't like that right so but could you do it as a musical sure you know could you do it in a way that honors the actual architecture the bones of truth goodness and beauty that are in the books yeah you could. This this first clip really just sets the stage for what's going to come next so just it's about a minute long this first part you understand kind of the context of what they're talking about and then we'll get into the yak butter comments here just a second. It would be a musical it's not the same thing a film is already not the same thing right a film made by a streamer with hundreds of millions of subscribers has a very particular need like very like it's supposed to scratch a very particular itch when that streamer has spent a quarter of a billion dollars on the road. The rights to these books 35 million each across the whole series like a better be big like so the only thing she can't do is make something boring right that is the number one it don't do you can this cannot be on spill yeah it just cannot be that's the most important thing in this business model for the people for whom she's working who are investing. You know however many billions in this franchise that's billions in marketing billions in trying to draw so. Keeping people from canceling because they have to stick around. And getting new people to subscribe like it's that's what it is so spectacular spectacular this is this is a war between circuses and you have to really really like. Be bright and kinetic and have a lot of taste in your mouth you know just kind of like odd hitting all your senses as far as the hundred million people who will be mad. You know so who cares right it's a pretty big group right though to but if they're talking about it and if they have other people being like really I mean I kind of like the music it's catchy yeah it's like. If you can make the songs a sticky is K-pop team hunters you know if you can do that right in effect I wouldn't even be surprised at all if somebody told her like if you can make this more of a music Oh we love that music sticks like music is sticky and if you hire just getting sadder and sadder and if you have you not saying that's what's happening. I was mistaken by how quickly we're I thought we were almost there but there's still a little bit here you're hearing of course the other voice you hear if you don't are familiar with their podcast is Brian Cole he's one of the leaders one of the guys running can impress I forget exactly his position. But that's Brian Cole and Indy Wilson there and talking and so we're almost there I promise. But they want music and if you hire the soundtrack to rock and if you hire really good producers and they make some your warm hits and they're going to be like the biggest. But you know songs of the summer like. You can do that and have this all be very gay and very bowie and totally ruined yeah and so still a complete success. Yeah my son just tracked across big chunk of Asia and up into bat he was he was sending his pictures of the idols made out of a yak butter. And these are like intricately sculpted colored like demon statues of butter. And so these yak butter idols they are real things I've seen them I haven't really ever paid much attention to them when I've been in and around the Tibetan Buddhist temples. And you see murals painted on the walls as well that are similar and they're going to mention this in a second is these these are not just pretty little goddesses and gods these are like demonic things people like being eaten and tortured and hell and there's just always really wicked you know all these heads and arms and legs and it's like very drag any serpent. This very wicked very evil looking things and so you have yak butter carving carved ones and then you have big murals that are drawn with these kinds of images on them as well. And so that's what he's referring to so again this is son is sending him pictures from the very route that I probably recommended him to go again I don't know for sure which one of the three different ways they they went so I can't say for sure which city this would have been in which Tibetan town or city. This would have been I can kind of guess I think because I know I'm assuming it's one of the more remote areas where you see those kinds of things more on display but anyway we will continue with with their comments here. This last I have yeah they do I have no idea how often they have to maintain them but the thing it's funny is that even have like blemishes and pox like diseases some of them are like demons with chicken pox you know but not accidentally like intentionally designed this way it's I don't know how long they last I don't know how often they have to redo it but the thing is I like butter butter is wholesome even yak butter I'm sure I'd be all about yeah little. I got a stopper quick here before we make some it goes any further. Yak butter he said you don't know how long they last I don't know either I don't know if they had to be redone carved but the yak butter I think it's probably just yak butter that's been hardened and so it's not like it's made of yak butter that's really really gone old in some sense I'm not really sure. But he's assuming yak butter is basically the same thing as our butter made from cows or whatever milk but it's not quite the same thing it's a different process they use and a different just a different flavor as a whole it's usually quite rancid even when they serve it it's very very salty very very bitter and sour and rancid and so the comments he's making here in just a moment don't hold up to to experience it makes me smile. The thought of this makes me smile because it would be very nice but it's not what we've experienced yak butter you don't put on bread but again I'm getting ahead of myself here listen to the comments he makes here. Yak butter on toast with some cinnamon sugar I'm sure it's amazing like could you put a little yak butter on your pancakes and yeah you know but let's imagine you're that little Tibetan boy who. Alright we'll stop there yak butter on toast yak butter with some cinnamon sugar on bread isn't that sound amazing it does sound amazing again if it's real just normal butter but yak butter into bet proper is most often served in tea and it's not just any tea it's served as a big glob of yak butter in salty tea they like to drink this salty tea and actually the salty flavor comes partly from the saltiness in the butter the way they do the butter so it's very nice. Again a little bit sour bittersy it's it's it's passed in other words you know it's gone bad it's gone sour the butter typically it's not fresh it's not nice it's gone sour and so usually when they give you your Tibetan yak butter tea you're trying your best to sip from the part of the glass where the butter hasn't quite melted into so you're trying to make a little bit of a of a hole in the buttery froth on top to sip just normal straight tea and not have to sip. The kind of rancid yak butter flavor there from the tea that's generally how it goes again sometimes it's a little less rancid than others but usually it's just not a real pleasant flavor and experience there again the saltyness I like the salty tea but I don't enjoy the the frothy yak butter kind of film that that kind of ends up covering the whole glass of the of the tea that they serve there and I've never really seen it on butter the closest thing they have to serving the yak butter with the butter and the butter and the butter. With anything resembling carbohydrates or bread it's not really bread they put it they mix it as one of the ingredients to make what they call tampa. Tampa is the Tibetan staple food made of barley barley oats fresh barley oats barley flour yak butter and then the tea and then sometimes sugar they don't they don't usually add much sugar we like to add sugar because it gives it all a decent flavor but they mix those things together into sort of a dough and they eat the dough. And generally again it's not so sweet it's not salty either the yak butter can give it a little bit of a saltiness I guess but it's generally it makes a decent dough and if it has enough sugar in it it tastes pretty good it tastes like a sugary dough but not not not like cookies or anything like that not that sweet at all but that's about the closest you get to something involving yak butter that tastes decent if it's made right and doesn't have too much of the butter in it and it's not too over too too rancid there but definitely it's not something you spit it out. And then it's not something you spread on bread or pancakes if there were pancakes we used to serve actually French toast and pancakes there in our restaurant in the foothills of Tibet are we call their little cafe we ran that little place from 2007 to 2012 five years and we made a French toast and we serve that for breakfast not so much to the locals but we served it to the back packers the people trekking through there who were tired of eating or drinking the strains local things including you know yak butter tea and whatnot. We'd serve normal tea and normal drinks and we would then serve you know French toast with real butter with actual butter we would have to go buy three hours away at the big city you know imported butter or I guess usually we bought the butter yet was imported from New Zealand I believe because it's a completely different product. We could not buy local yak butter to make anything with in our little restaurant even though we were in a town that was a Tibetan town that had yak butter all over the place in all the homes and whatnot we never used it once for anything involving any ingredients the closest we used is we bought this Chinese made margarine from the Muslims about an hour hour and a half away and that margarine was then used to make some of our baked goods that we had and it was pretty decent margarine but it was not Tibetan yak butter by any means. Anyway this is my biggest critique of what he says makes me kind of funny I wish you could try real yak butter yak butter tea you know see if you could spread some on the Tibetan bread Tibetans do eat some sort different kinds of bread but not the kind of bread that you put butter on definitely not butter and jelly by the way they actually do have a decent jam that you can buy in that part of China where we live not far from where we had our cafe they had this one particular brand of jam and we got some good strawberry jam there so whenever people would come to our restaurant and they would order toasts they would order the French toast you know they would have some serve we'd have to import syrup as well generally or just buy honey or something and then but then if they wanted toast with jam we you could buy pretty good local jars of jam there from the local store anyway so jam yes butter was not available locally and definitely not the yak butter let's continue listening to their comments here and they're going to explain he's going to explain here the connection why he's even bringing yak butter up in relation to the narnia films let me back up a little bit so you can hear it. I'm curious comments one more time about the bread and butter and all that stuff like could you put a lot of yak butter on your pancakes and yeah you know but let's imagine you're that little Tibetan boy who grew up with yak butter and you loved it and then you come along and you see somebody has made this wild idol out of yak butter like even if I really liked yak butter and had loyalty to it and I would have trouble when I say the demon sculpted out of yak butter it's really it's disturbing like these things are disturbing disturbing idols they're not signing up as the Tibetan yak boy that's the reason I'm the user not neoplassical you know these are these are like real and related these are these are better and also yeah and I'm a big fan of butter but I have the same feeling I have the same feeling right now when I'm like watches that we sculpt this idolatry out of something wholesome and good right and it's I mean that's what's happening yeah but again if I disassociate and just look at the mechanics of what you're doing and why and why Netflix is doing this every bit of it makes sense to me all of it makes business sense to me so I got cussed out when I said that the Odyssey thing on Twitter was like smart business and the my it was a successful marketing and I think somebody told me I was an F in retard if I thought this was good marking and it's like yeah actually I was right that one has a pretty clear and it's there we got I feel the exact same about this like okay like if you're going to file it this is the only I want to hear what he finishes his comments here we got another minute or two of this but I'll jump in and say again regarding the yak butter the point he's trying to make about this imaginary Tibetan kid you know loving the this just kind of homemade butter and then seeing it morphed into something evil and demonic it's a good idea it's just probably not really realistic because the Tibetans wouldn't see butter the way we see butter they might see other things like the that's hampa doei breakfast food I told you about a minute ago if that was carved into something grotesque and evil right there and put on their shelf in their in their room that would be like wait wait we eat this stuff this is really nice and what is that thing but the yak butter itself wouldn't have wouldn't hold quite that view in their eyes of anything they would see it just as a as a necessary evil or condiment they they mix in with their things because they need it because it has to be there to wake make the foods work or whatever but it's not something they just delight us it to eat or to use and what not not quite in the same way we do anyway the small critique but it is kind of an interesting one to say I mean his point still stands you know something like what he shared is is true but that particular example doesn't really hold water doesn't really doesn't really stand on its own two feet compared to the reality but let's listen to him finish his point about the narnia show and then we'll go on to a couple of things here in today's podcast where to fly like south and proud and just lean in wait that was that was the very end anyway that's that was the end of the comments I wanted to share with you there anyway just to fasten any little thing someday I'll talk to India again I'll probably bring that up again and definitely ask I'll ask the sun sometime where he was and exactly where that happened to be and I'll mention that to him and see what he thinks he probably would also maybe roll his eyes a little bit after having as much of the yak butter to actually it could very well be that indeed knows better now after hearing from his son directly about some of his stories and some of the flavors and foods they ate there anyway just a fun little thing to think about now today's book of the week I don't always do a book of the week but I need to keep a lot of books to recommend some that I've helped publish others today's book of the week is fitting to bet the roof of the world it's a it's basically it's number four in what's called the China Chronicles which is a series of books by Paul had away a long time missionary to Asia in China and he he's publishing one book about each Chinese province so it really ties in well with what we're doing about teaching people to pray for China and so this is number four in his series and there's only eight or nine that have been done so far you know 20 something left to go but it's called Tibet the roof of the world and it's just an overview of the history of Tibet especially the attempts to bring the gospel to Tibet there's many many attempts made over the years many fascinating many crazy difficult stories but that's what it focuses on I've given away a bunch of these even there in Moscow Idaho when I've been there for the mission's conference and for the Grace agenda conference I've had books to give away on the table because Tibet is paired up with Idaho with Montana with Wyoming and northern Utah and northern Colorado those are the five states or portions of states that are paired up to make a good match with the Chinese region of Tibet and for the purposes of our adopting in prayer and so I'm giving away a bunch of those books there to different folks who committed to pray for Tibet so if you want to get you get a copy of the book you can go to the link here in the show notes Asia harvest.org is Paul had a ways ministry Asia harvest that's where the books are available for sale also on Amazon I'm sure you can find them there as well to bet the roof of the world in the China Chronicles by Paul had a way now this week marked 77 years since China officially became the people's Republic of China and I happen to see on Twitter again a day or two ago a comment or or actually really a series kind of an interview a written interview of a man by the name of Lee Kuan Yu Lee Kuan Yu was Singapore's founding prime minister and the main architect of the city state of Singapore back when it was really getting going in the last middle of the last century Lee Kuan Yu was born September 16th 1923 there in Singapore and he died there just a little over 10 years ago March 23rd 2015 He was a Cambridge trained lawyer. He co-founded the people's action party PAP PAP and let it to power in the 1959 elections becoming prime minister at age 35 he served from 159 to 90 so 31 years as prime minister including the last years of Britain's rule there Singapore merged briefly with Malaysia in 63 to 65 I didn't really even know that And then the first 25 years of full independence after separation in 1965 He was a senior minister there for another 14 years up into 2004 and then a minister mentor from 04 to 2011 I think the interview I'm going to read a portion of to you comes from about 2011 with a major news outlet Under his leadership it says here. This is Grock give me a little summary here Singapore moved from a poor unstable port city to a high income low corruption trading and finance hub With large public housing and education programs his government was also widely described as authoritarian It restricted opposition media and some civil liberties in the name of ordering growth It is you know, I've known this over the years heard it over the years Singapore Is not as free as one might assume a it's mostly it's 70% Chinese But there is an authoritarian streak in Singapore not like communist not like China But there is an authoritarian streak very strict on many different things in their society and there's a lot of there's a little bit of Socialist streak as well a lot of public housing and public education is very strong there and different things So again, it's not a perfect utopia by any means But this is a fascinating quote and I haven't actually read this entire thing I read parts of it and it seemed to hit the nail on the head pretty good So I'm going to read this with you and make a few comments along the way if there's comments that need to be made And but this is related to China's future this particular interview Lee Quan you on China the questioner the first question here is will China become a democracy Will China become a democracy now? This was again. This is about a A dozen or 15 years ago when China was somewhat more open than it is even today and sheging ping the current dictator had not taken full power Yet, but this is what he says no China is not going to become a liberal democracy if it did it would collapse Of that I'm quite sure and the Chinese intelligentsia also understands that if you believe that there's going to be a revolution of some sort in China for democracy You are wrong. Where are the students of Tiananmen now? They are irrelevant The Chinese people want a revived China. Can it be a parliamentary democracy? This is a possibility in the villages and small towns now might sound like he's pro communist there He's not pro-communist. He's just trying to be realistic about what China's future might look like He goes on to say the Chinese fear chaos and will always air on the side of caution it will be a long evolutionary process But it is possible to contemplate such changes Transportation and communications have become so much faster and cheaper the Chinese people will be exposed to other systems and cultures and no other society societies through Travel through the internet and through smartphones. So that has happened One thing is for sure the present system will not remain unchanged for the next 50 years So we see there will be gradual change, but it won't just become this liberal democracy all of a sudden There's just no way that that will happen To achieve the modernization of China Her communist leaders are prepared to try every method Except for democracy with one person and one vote in a multi-paraparty system So his opinion is they're willing to do anything anything adjust anything Try anything except for Democracy with a true one person one vote multi-party system and he says this there two main reasons For this belief or this this thought process Are the belief that the communist party of China must have a monopoly on power to ensure stability and their deep fear of instability in a multi-party Free for all which would lead to a loss of control by the center over the provinces So basically a fear of losing control is the reason they will never do that thing multi-party system one person one vote they won't allow that willingly to happen To ask China to become a democracy when in its 5,000 years of recorded history it never counted heads All rulers ruled by right of being the emperor if you disagree you chop off heads not count heads This is what he's saying So that was his answer to that first question second question The relationship between the United States and China has now become the most important geopolitical issue of the century How do the two sides engage with one another? This is the part I have not read ahead of time. So we'll see what he says From the Chinese side in a very pragmatic almost cold blooded and clinical fashion On the American side there's been some vacillation first China is a strategic adversary Then China is a strategic partner Then China is a stakeholder and then China is not carrying its weight It's a good point He says China how do the two sides engage China is very pragmatic cold-blooded clinical I can agree that's that's what I see from my perspective in America isn't and that's a problem over the long How China keeps making inroads into our Defenses and different ways and sending people in and all these things and we've been vacillating back and forth Oh, we're friends of China. Oh, no, there are enemies. No, we're friends again. No, we're gonna work together We haven't really been consistent over the last generation or so Next question what impact is China's rise having on its neighbors in Asia China strategy for Southeast Asia is fairly simple China tells the region come grow with me At the same time China's leaders want to convey the impression that China's rise Is inevitable and that countries will need to decide if they want to be China's friend or fo China is also willing to calibrate its engagement to get what it wants or express its displeasure So yeah China's just trying to play its neighbors for its own benefit. That's pretty pretty obvious another question here Will they be able to create the domestic demand? I'm not China the domestic demand necessary as they find exports slowly being reduced Yes, slowly he says but in the meantime, they're keeping the economy by an enormous expenditure on infrastructure in the west high-speed roads high-speed railways airports telephone lines Water from the south up to the north where it's arid and dry huge enormous mammoth projects that keeps the economy going we've seen that in China over the years We were there massive amounts of investment in the west areas though. I talked to a lady at one of our conferences a couple weeks ago That lives now in one of the cities we used to live in and I told her and she's never seen it the way we saw it 20 years ago 20 years ago the tallest building in the city was about seven or eight stories high and there were a lot of them but seven or eight stories was the old Hyte the most Chinese building before elevators were put in that was the highest you never want to walk up the stairs seven floors eight floors Maybe was the highest they would do a building with no elevator Well once they started building taller buildings they went up like crazy that same city that had zero buildings over eight floors Back in 2004 now has I mean maybe over a thousand buildings a thousand high rises Apartments of all kinds buildings of all kinds. I mean it's got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of minimum There and that's all that's what she's seen she's living there a couple years from Beijing originally And so anyway China has done massive expenditure in the west and that helps to keep the economy pumping and growing at least for now Next question how will China's behavior toward other countries change if China becomes the dominant Asian power at the core this is the answer at the core of their mindset their world Before colonization and the exploitation and humiliation that brought in Chinese China means middle kingdom recalling a world in which they were dominant in the region This is an old world right past world The concern of America is what kind of world they will face when China is able to contest their pre-immunates Many medium and small countries in Asia are also concerned They are uneasy that China may want to resume the imperial status It had an earlier centuries and have misgivings about being treated as vassal states Having to contribute to China as they used to in past Centuries the Chinese tell us that countries bigger small are equal that they are not a hedgemen But when we do something they do not like they say you have made 1.3 billion people unhappy So please know your place and that's just part of a quote. It looks like here there was more to the answer that's not published here on this particular post Next question what is China's strategy for becoming number one? The Chinese have concluded that their best strategy is to build a strong and prosperous future And use their huge and increasingly highly skilled and educated workers to outsell and outbuild all others Seems pretty accurate to what I see the Chinese have calculated they need 30 to 50 years of peace and quiet to catch up Build up their system and change it from the communist system to the market System I believe the Chinese leadership has learned that if you compete with America and armaments you will lose You will bankrupt yourself so keep your head down and smile for 40 or 50 Year so China would still be in that growing Stage of just growing slowly over time not fighting peace and prosperity growing Next question. What are the major hurdles in executing that strategy? There will be enormous stresses because of the size of the country and the intractable nature of the problems The poor infrastructure the weak institutions the wrong systems that have been installed straight line extra extrapolations from China's remarkable record are not realistic China has more handicaps going forward and more obstacles to overcome than most observers recognize That's hard for me even to see because you see the growth and it's hard to really see The difficulties because China seems in the last 20-30 years to have overcome many difficulties But it's hard to see let's see what he says chief among these are their problems of governance The absence of the rule of law which in today's China is closer to the rule of the emperor A huge country in which little impurs across a vast expanse exercise great local influence cultural habits That limit imagination and creativity rewarding conformity these are all different things A language that is exceedingly difficult for foreigners to learn sufficiently to embrace China and be embraced by its society And severe constraints on its ability to attract and assimilate talent from other countries Those are all true by the way. Those are all difficulties that again You can easily look over those things. What was the list again? Let's go back to that list real quick Huge country no rule of law more like an emperor than a president vast expanse every region has its own Local influences that are strong their cultural habits that limit imagination and creativity conformity is one of those main issues Language that is very difficult for outsiders to learn and outsiders are not embraced by Chinese society Even those of us who have been there many years that the closest we get to being embraced by them is but them say hey You're you're an old hat and child hand in Chinese. You know our language really well and they kind of smile But then we know those of us who know Chinese friendly well still know how far we are from truly understanding and being Accepted as a Chinese person. It's it we're still pretty far from that and then severe constraints on its ability to attract and assimilate talent From other countries China will inevitably as his his continued response catch up to the US in absolute GDP But its creativity may never match America's because its culture does not permit a free exchange and contest of ideas How else to explain how a country with four times as many people as America and presumably four times as many talented people Does not come up with technological breakthroughs Final question How should one assess Xi Jinping Now this must have come not 2011 this must well know I guess 2010 is when he came into but I'm no it was 2012 Anyway, this might be 2013 then this I was saying it was 2011 this might be 2013 about a year after Xi Jinping came into power anyway He has had a tougher life than his predecessor Hu Jintao Hu Jintao was the guy that when I was there for my first eight or ten years in China tougher life he says his father was And so was he he took it in stride and worked his way up it has not been smooth sailing for him his life experiences must have hardened him He is reserved not in the sense that he will not talk to you But in the sense that he will not betray his likes and dislikes There is always a pleasant smile on his face whether or not you have said something that annoyed him He has ironed in his soul more than Hu Jintao who ascended the ranks without experiencing the trials and tribulations that she endured He is a person with enormous emotional stability who does not allow His personal misfortunes or sufferings to affect his judgment. He is impressive Now that's I've not read that. I've never heard him describe that way It does worry me a little bit. It sounds like he might for for a he then for a pagan for a communist atheist He might be a very strong personality very strong person But what he says does have the ring of truth there And again, this is coming from somebody who I assume met him face to face because he was in the Singapore government and Xi Jinping was rising through the Chinese government He talks like somebody who's been close to him been near him and seeing him and talk to him face to face Anyway, I thought that was just interesting just a good View into the into China and from the eyes of another Chinese man again This is a overseas Chinese Singaporean Chinese about Asia gives a good insight into how Things are going in there shaping up for the next Generation or so lots to think about lots to pray about honestly In what we just read now. There's one more thing I want to look at today before we get to the final Pray for China segment here something I just happened to see in passing Was something that Trump didn't really say well, I guess he did say something but it wasn't directly about Taiwan But what he said Troubled Taiwan. Let me go ahead and read to you this summary first and then we'll look at this other this article Where it has a little more detail So when Xi Jinping was in Beijing not long ago or sorry in Washington a couple weeks ago a week or two ago They had a state dinner and they had a big welcome there and in the midst I didn't watch any of it. I didn't watch the knee of it I don't really care to watch some of that stuff But Trump said in a comment that the pursuit of common interest had even make this quote even made us allies in world war two That seemed like a pretty innocuous comment hey we were allies in war war two and he praised the flying tigers These were American volunteer pilots who went to China in 1941 to fight Japan So China and Japan China and the US fought Japan together Back in world war two and Trump Said this and kind of praised this and said hey, we were we have this in common that we fought together in world War two now Xi Jinping answered that Chinese and Americans stood shoulder quote shoulder to shoulder Against Japanese militarism with ties quote forged in blood and fire So he's trying she's like yes. Yes. Yes. We fought together blood and fire And then a White House fact sheet afterwards said that the two leaders recalled that the United States and China Quote were allies in world war two and fought side by side to win the war Now up to this point you might be saying well, that sounds kind of cool. I guess yeah I guess we did fight with them that was Obviously before communism and that's the point. This is the point Taiwan Raised at an historical objection to this because the government that fought Japan as a US ally Was the Republic of China under Chang Kai Shik That's Taiwan the Republic of China is the China government that fled to Taiwan when the communist overran The mainland there the people's Republic of China was not founded of and four more years after World War two ended in 1949 Taiwan's mainland affairs council said in the aftermath of these comments from Trump and Xi That the PRC the people's Republic of China. That's the modern Communist China did not quote did not exist during the war and that it was the Republic of China Quote the Republic of China that truly fought alongside the United States So Taiwan the Republic of China is what fought alongside the United States not China Taiwan's deputy foreign minister said Beijing was trying to quote replace the Republic of China's role Calling the White House wording something type A Should feel very quote feel very sad about and so Beijing has often used this type of framing about on purpose They're treating today's China as The historical China. That's what China has always tried to do now We are the real China where the historical China they were the rebels the ones that ran off But history shows us and tells us that the government of China was the same government that still Rules in Taiwan to the state that was the government of China up until 49 It's the current regime that is usurping power. That's just historical fact now. They wanted they beat them in war But they're usurping the power that was there before the ROC is the Taiwanese government the PRC is what is ruling now so this these comments by Trump made obviously made Taiwan nervous they trouble the Taiwanese leaders because again that Trump is giving some standing by making those comments to China modern-day China's claims that yes, we have been there all along and again in one sense it sounds good Yes, we fought with the Chinese people There was no clarity in the comments about exactly which now if Trump would have tried to clarify To she those comments that would have been a big blow up She might have got on his plane and flown home which that would have been fine as for all I care But he couldn't quite say that in that moment without starting a big argument there a big deal there But at the same time he could have not said what he said because that also kind of puts Taiwan out on the back porch It pushes them out of the picture Anyway, I wanted to call it again. I don't know if what Trump did was accidental or if it was literally on purpose Probably it was done. It seems to me that it was done probably Without really thinking even the US the White House fact sheet Maybe the US people have weren't thinking clearly and maybe they are thinking clearly and they really don't care that much Ultimately if Taiwan you know comes back to the mainland and renews ties with her Maybe they don't anyway. It's a I can see why it's troubling For Taiwan and it's a little troubling for me too. It's like come on come on Yes, we did fight shoulder to shoulder, but against Japanese milk, but it wasn't with the com well I will say this the commies. There's an article here from the Boston Star and there's more details. I'll put the link here in the show notes as well here The issue has raised concern in Taipei because Taiwan fears that Washington could adopt Beijing's version of the war Which could affect US support for the island particularly since Washington is Taiwan's main source of weapons Taiwan is governed democratically, but it's claimed by China as part of its territory Its government says Beijing's account of where we're to omits an important part of history Because the Republic of China was the government in power at the time and fought alongside the Allied forces The Republic of China government moved to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's communist forces It is continued to use the Republic of China as its formal name China says comment China. This is their rebuttal says I wanted to make sure I mentioned this particular part here because this is China's argument back China says communist guerrilla forces not the official army with the guerrilla forces were the quote Backbone of resistance against Japan during the war It's official account gives much less attention to the role played by the ROC their public of China Government and its forces they they build up their own guerrilla But hey, we were the ones behind the scenes fighting this guerrilla war against the the Japanese We were the ones that really were doing it So that's the way they try to explain that away historically anyway This is to fasten anything and I guess I would just say Trump and the administration need to be careful How they talking and make sure they understand their history the China compass podcast is brought to you by pray for China quick question How many Chinese provinces can you name? I'll wait while you make your list Everyone has heard of China's most famous cities and in regions Beijing Shanghai Hong Kong But few could name even one inland province Hudson Taylor founded the China inland mission in the 1800s for precisely this purpose because so few ventured into the heart of the middle kingdom Our goal at pray for China is to promote prayer from every US state for every Chinese province and eventually every county Click on your state on our clickable map on our website to see which Chinese province to adopt in prayer and for more info on how to begin praying and interceding for China that's pray for China dot us pray the preposition for FOR China dot us Well, there you go You can go to China call dot sub stack dot com and you can sign up for the sub stack and you can get those to your email every week Once a week. I'll put it out on usually on Sundays and it starts on Monday each week starts on Monday And I'm going to go through the cities for this coming week here pretty quickly here Monday October 5th pray for Fou trans city in Qiannan Buye and Miao tribal prefecture in mountainous Guijou in mountainous Guijou province central China Guijou is not far from where some of those American pilots ended up having to land when they would come through and try to fight the Japanese back in the day Guijou is paired up with eastern Missouri for prayer eastern Missouri paired up with Guijou province for prayers they they're in similar locations within the country kind of east Central locations in the country geographically speaking there again. That's Monday October 5th Fou trans city there Tuesday October 6th wait What's on the field yeah Tuesday October 6th pray for Xinji city in Hubei's Capital Shijou Xinji city is in Hubei's capital prefecture Shijou Which is straight south of Beijing on the main north south Railway again. This is Hubei province right there in north central China Xinji city Hubei province is paired with Wisconsin and Michigan Wisconsin and Michigan together Hubei is one of the really populated provinces of China 100 million people strong They're in Hubei province. It kind of surrounds Beijing kind of like wraps around it They're part of the great wall runs through Hubei province as well Wednesday October 7th pray for Ji Guan district Which is really the urban core of Ji Xi Ji Xi I should say it Ji Xi Ji Xi literally means chicken west Chicken west or I guess you could turn it around western chicken chicken west It's a city in Haleungjiang province in north eastern China. Haleungjiang is Black dragon river so Imagine saying you live in chicken west city in black dragon river province That's what some people can say that I've been to Ji Xi actually I went there back in 2003 pass through there Ji Xi is not too far south of eggplant river And it's also not too far from tiger Forest and then also double duck mountain is up there and then another mysterious Mountain is another town there There's all kinds of fun names have been that particular part of China far north eastern China near Siberia Black dragon river is paired with Minnesota and upper Michigan Minnesota and upper mission the UPia Michigan are paired up for prayer In regards to Haleungjiang Black dragon river province So that was what was the name of the town Ji Guan district Wednesday October 7th Thursday October 8th pray for Linying county which is in Luoha prefecture Right in the heart of China Hunan province is right in the middle of China And this is right smack in the heart of Hunan province Linying county Linying county Almost sounds like you're saying leaning like leaning over leaning county. It's kind of how you pronounce it sort of Linying county Lian why I in Ji Linying county is in Hunan province Hunan means south of the river south of the river Hunan Is river non is south And it's paired up with Kentucky and West Virginia for prayer if you're in Kentucky Adopt Hunan for prayer. It can tuck you West Virginia. Easy to remember there They're also south of the Ohio river there for the most part right there It's a good it's a good geographical fit match with Hunan province there in China Linying county at Thursday October 8th Friday October 9th pray for Qing Yuan district in Ji'an Ji'an is one of the larger cities in southeast China's Jiangxi province. I visited Ji'an Ji'an way back in the day 2002 my very first two-week trip to China. I visited Ji'an right in the town there. I would not recognize the damn sure I'm sure it's grown and changed and whatnot. I do have one short story from Ji'an. I probably share this before I was really missing American food. I was not enjoying my first two-week trip to China. I was not enjoying the food not enjoying the Chinese food all the stuff. I was tired of it. I was with two guys who did like it and I was kind of annoyed And we were at the bus station in Ji'an waiting to catch a bus to continue Running from the place we were running from town to town leaving tracks and bibles everywhere And and we were kind of being followed and different things So we're at the bus station catching a bus And I said I got to find something. I want to find a chicken sandwich I knew that China has McDonald's and KFC and they usually really focus on their chicken burgers They call them chicken sandwiches And so I used my little phrase book and I grabbed a taxi out front and I said take me to the the KFC And they ended up not being a KFC in town, but there was a fake KFC a knockoff KFC Not too far away. So I bargained my price with the taxi driver a husband and wife and a little minivan And I thought the price was three three Chinese yuan three Chinese dollars Because that's what they were showing me three fingers and I'm saying the word for three and it's three three three Okay, great great And so off we went And I get there and they stopped for me and this one little side walking they pointed and it wasn't very far over there I went and got my food and they waited for me and it came back I think I must have bargained that with them beforehand Hey wait for me. I'll come back and then we'll get her right back and I'm an I'm impressed I got my meal for probably 10 or 15 which is just like two dollars and then three more for the taxi 40 cents for a taxi This is great. I love China and I get back to the bus station and they're smile and in there I'm waiting there. They're holding their hand out here pay me and I hand them one two three yuan And they're like oh no, no, no, no, they start they start shaking their hands and head no No, no, no, no, no, and I'm like wait wait, but they're still saying the word three So I'm like what do you mean three no three and finally I forget the phrase book or talking or whatever it was I realized they were saying 30 30 Which in Chinese you would say three 10 three 10 I didn't know the word for 10 I didn't I barely knew the word for three back then So instead they were saying but in China you say the first word and everyone kind of knows what you mean They just get the context and the idea so they had been saying 30 all along probably And I was just clueless and thought they were saying three hey China's cheap of course it's cheap 40 cents for a taxi ride turns out the taxi ride was about four dollars which is still cheap right But that's like double the cost of my lunch And so anyway it went from being a great great deal to being a good meal But not a great deal I could have gotten three meals for the price of the one if it wasn't for the 30 UN taxi ride that I took instead of the three UN Anyway, I always remember that was in jian Although I've never been back and never been able to go back and see I wouldn't ever be able to find any of those places today. I've been back China's changed so much Saturday October the 10th pray for me law Me law city in Hunan province Hunan is a real common name in America for Chinese restaurants and whatnot Hunan province me law city This is in Yue as hard to say this Yue Yang prefecture in Hunan province me law city is the place to pray for on Saturday October the 10th Hunan is paired up with Indiana and Ohio for prayer Hunan is south of the lake Hunan is south of the river Hunan is south of the lake So Indiana, Ohio make a good pair to pray for Hunan province by the way I missed when I was talking about jian a minute ago Qingyuan district jian city Jiangxi province Jiangxi is paired with Georgia for prayer They sit in the exact same spot geographically they almost have the same shape even similar shapes So it really cool mats there Jiangxi and Georgia they even kind of sound similar Last one Sunday October the 11th pray for isheng isheng city in Wushi prefecture in Jiangsu province Such as love Chinese isheng city Wushi prefecture Jiangsu province this is on China's eastern seaboard Right there next to Shanghai and it's paired up with Tennessee for prayer, which is not a good match This is one of the few of the 30 provinces in 50 states. I could not find a great match The only thing that Jiangsu and Tennessee have in common is the climate would be similar They're similar distance from the equator similar winter similar summer and they have it's almost the same number of counties I believe it's 95 counties each or 99 counties something like that Similar number of counties because we want to pair up all the counties eventually and also Similar similar climate similar weather, but they don't sit at all in the same part of their own respective nation So that's Sunday October 11th pray for isheng City now on Sundays every week I post this and I'm going to read it here remember that today in China on Sunday in China Thousands of pastors will continue to be detained harassed persecuted for faithfully leading their flocks We need to remember that as we worship freely every Sunday Hebrews 13-3 to remember as if we were bound with them those who are arrested those who are detained persecuted and again this is I'm reading isheng is praying for isheng on Sunday the 11th If you're listening to this on Saturday or Sunday the fourth a third or fourth of October go to substack china called that substack.com and you can see what we're still praying for today Thank you for listening to the podcast once again I didn't know how long this would take I have no idea how long this episode is going to be when I finish doing a little bit of editing Subscribe to China compass and leave review on your preferred platform Follow me on twitter x at china adventures and find out everything else praygivgo.us has links to the substack the books all the stuff Praygivgo.us Luke 10 verse 2 the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few Therefore pray let's pray more workers more workers with the harvest tuck it in soon. God bless