After a brief intro, I jump into the four (very random) China stories of the week (1:25), followed by a deep dive into how the Babylon Bee recently (no joke) promoted Falun Gong, a Chinese Buddhist cult (23:31). For the final five or so minutes, I go through all of the Pray for China cities to "remember" this week. (52:12).
Welcome to China Compass on the Fight Laugh Feast Network! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me (@chinaadventures) on Twitter/X where I post new/unique Chinese city prayer profiles every single day. Also, you can email me any questions or comments (bfwesten at gmail dot com) and find everything else, including my books, at PrayGiveGo.us!
Pray for China places of the week (Follow @chinaadventures to see which city daily)
https://chinacall.substack.com/p/pray-for-china-aug-17-23-2025
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-deploys-robot-antelope-in-tibet-to-surveil-real-herds
China's Strategic Rare Earth Move (50 Years Ago!)
https://indiandefencereview.com/in-1978-chinese-engineers-visited-two-major-american-companies-on-their-return-they-founded-an-empire-rare-earths/
All the Peanut Butter in China?
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/charted-peanut-butter-consumption-per-capita-by-country/
Hong Kong to be China's Crypto Hub
https://cointelegraph.com/news/china-crypto-liquidation-plans-reveal-its-grand-strategy
The Bee: 10 Undeniable Reasons Communist China Is Way Better Than America
https://babylonbee.com/news/10-undeniable-reasons-communist-china-is-way-better-than-america
Not ‘da Bee: Here’s the Falun Gong Streaming Platform That Sponsored the Bee Article
https://www.ganjingworld.com/tag/Falun%20Dafa/1699198512775
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong
https://www.ucanews.com/news/falun-gongs-secrets-for-surviving-in-china/85660
Final Thoughts on Falun Gong:
Not a typical cult, but close (ie, mysterious god-like leader, etc)Not Christian at all, but has some political/practical overlap (right wing, anti-big gov)Better organized than Christians (calls, vpns, hackers, promotions)Follow or subscribe to China Compass and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. And don’t forget: Follow @chinaadventures on X, and find everything else @ PrayGiveGo.us.
Luke 10, verse 2, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Talk to you again soon!