Are Chinese Students All Commies and Spies? (Deace Says Yea, I Say Nay)

After working through this week’s Pray for China cities (4:28), we jump into the topic of the day: Are Chinese students all spies? (19:05). Lastly, some stories about teaching in China (50:00).  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! NEW! RSS Feed to add show on iTunes: https://app.dropwave.io/feed/show/china-compass   Pray for China Interceding for all the Cities of China PrayforChina.us Pray for China places of the week  (Or, follow @chinaadventures daily…) https://chinacall.substack.com/p/pray-for-china-sep-1-7-2025   So Trump promised to welcome 600k Chinese students into United States universities and Christian political commentator, Steve Deace, is not amused. Here's his show from last week… No, It's Not 'America First' to Import 600,000 SPIES | 8/26/25 (7:09-7:56, 14:14-29:50) https://www.podbean.com/ea/dir-8bbvi-2732e521 First, I love the Steve Deace Show for many reasons, but the ignorant takes (in the literal, not name-calling, sense) on China is not one of them: “Half a million Chinese spies getting into top universities.” “Importing 600,000 Chinese Communists. . . to preserve (financially) [our already communist and subsidized] universities?” “Less than 1,000 (US students in China)*, because apparently they care more about their institutions and culture than we do.” “How ‘bout: we don't take any Chicoms, and we make [American universities] take and train [our] students instead, and tell them they are going to lose all taxpayer funding and subsidies if they don't.” “[Make American universities great again], instead of depots for Chinese Communists.” *False: http://en.moe.gov.cn/news/press_releases/201904/t20190418_378586.html Now, before I explain more, it's worth noting in agreement that opening the door to so many foreign students is probably bad for America, just not for some of the more common reasons given (ie, Chinese students are all spies).   So, are Chinese students spies? Listen to the podcast for my answers...   One final quote from Steve Deace: “I cannot imagine there is a single listener or viewer to this program anywhere in America who thinks if we follow through on this, that it would be a net positive for the country. . . 0.0.” In response, here was my (unsuccessful) submission via Twitter/X to the show's Buy, Sell, or Hold segment the following day:  “In the long run, the lesser number of Chinese Christian students who study in the US (some in places like NSA in Moscow, ID), will have a greater impact than the larger number of "normie" Chinese students who are blackmailed into being pro-CCP hacks.”   What say you?  Feel free to opine on X, or shoot me an email: bfwesten at gmail dot com   Subscribe to China Compass and leave a review on your preferred podcast platform.  Follow us on Twitter/X (@chinaadventures), and find much more @ PrayGiveGo.us.  Luke 10, verse 2, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Talk again soon!