EP #119: The Impact of China with Jason Szeftel
The world seems to be smaller than ever. It’s easy to communicate across continents and digital technology has accelerated most things in life. However, every place in the world has a history and it’s important to understand how the past still affects the future. You must understand how a place works in order to see its impact on the world and have your own impact in that region.
Jason Szeftel is a political and economic writer that has focus on China. His experiences there allowed him to learn much about the culture and history of the nation. The conversation in this episode is enlightening as to how its systems work. You’ll want to pay close attention to the need for understanding these things in order to maximize impact. Every place in the world has needs and whoever is called to serve them must be well-educated.
What You'll Learn In Today's Episode:
How Jason became interested in China
Jason’s background and international relations experience
About China’s government politics
How many countries are segmented
The importance of understanding other cultures
About historical China
The volatility of the Chinese population
How human life is not valued
How China’s land stresses there agriculture
How masses of people are used to overcome things
About the North China Plane
How hard it is to feed, educate, and house a huge population
About the Chinese Communist Party and its size
About historical social unrest in China
The age of the Chinese population
About poverty in China
How businesses in China benefit the Communist Party
What the Poll Bureau is
How you can join the Communist Party
Jason’s thoughts on how COVID-19’s development
About the strange incompetence at the lab in Wuhan where the coronavirus came from
How Western missionaries have made an Impact on China
The challenges that China faces and how they are similar to Russia
The impact opportunities going forward in the easter hemisphere
Ideas Worth Sharing:
“When I was a kid, I was reading old…Chinese novels.” - Jason Szeftel
“China can’t be fixed.” - Jason Szeftel
“There’s more than one China.” - Jason Szeftel
“There are tensions within the country.” - Jason Szeftel
“When things go bad, they often break into pieces.” - Jason Szeftel
“China avoided a big slowdown with the financial crisis by kicking the can down the road.” - Jason Szeftel
“Before the 20th Century, both the deadliest conflicts in the world were Chinese civil wars.” - Jason Szeftel
“Northern China is extraordinarily poor.” - Jason Szeftel
“The population of Chinese rises and falls.” - Jason Szeftel
“China has horrific land.” - Jason Szeftel
“There’s literally rice patties that crawl up mountainsides.” - Jason Szeftel
“It could start to use its population to satisfy global consumer needs all across the world.” - Jason Szeftel
“It needed to retool its economy to be a more consumer-driven economy.” - Jason Szeftel
“There’s been thousands of peasant rebellions.” - Jason Szeftel
“Individualism is ’t encourages to say it lightly.” - Jason Szeftel
“They had all these young, cheap, healthy workers.” - Jason Szeftel
“Inland in China you can find insane poverty.” - Jason Szeftel
“How do you have billionaires who own giant private companies in communism?” - Jason Szeftel referencing a question he gets frequently
“There’s no company in China that didn’t have deals or kickbacks for the Communist Party.” - Jason Szeftel
“The Communist Party is 95 million plus members.” - Jason Szeftel
“All the politics happen inside the party.” - Jason Szeftel
“The history of western missionaries…had an enormous impact on this country.” - Jason Szeftel
“What’s happening to Russia will most likely happen in China.” - Jason Szeftel
“Did you feel a need to fix and make an impact immediately?” - Bob DePasquale
“We can’t necessarily fix it but we should at least understand what’s going on.” - Bob DePasquale
“It’s interesting how understanding other people’s cultures helps us learn more about ourselves.” - Bob DePasquale
Resources In Today's Episode:
Jason Szeftel - Website - LinkedIn - Instagram - Twitter - TikTok - Patreon
Bob’s Book - Personal Finance in a Public World
This week’s E-Impact Blog Entry
Episodes Referenced:
EP #81: Giving Opportunities to Others with Sylvester Boyd, Jr.