Paul Kennedy: The European Union and the United States are both declining, in terms of economic and military power.

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Manila bound! Thank you Iloilo happy Dinagyang festival! Thank you @ysabyzen @ysaskinandbodyexperts for having us!!!! @misagh_9

A photo posted by Sam Pinto (@sampinto_) on Jan 24, 2016 at 2:04am PST

Brent Landau: It’s an incredibly grand story, so who the Magi are in this text is, they are descendants of Adam and Eve’s third son, Seth. They live in this far eastern land. The text calls the land "Shir" and from other ancient texts, it seems like the place it had in mind is the land of China. The cave is filled with light. They’re kind of hesitant about this, but eventually the star…its light concentrates and reveals the small luminous human being…a star child, if you will…it’s Christ. Christ tells them, "This is one of many occasions on which I have appeared to the peoples of the world," so this text may even be saying that there are no non-Christian religions because Christ is the revelation behind everything.

Adeline Lum: Tom saw a vision of how the Lord is on a white horse of revival with two guns: in one gun, the trigger was Japan, the barrel was China, and the cork was Korea. This is what he called as the chopstick revival. Instead of fighting each other, the Lord will unite them as one, as they return to the promised land

Journey of the Magi by Thomas Stearns Eliot OM 

‘A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a long journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.’

And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,

And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

A hard time we had of it.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,

Sleeping in snatches,

With the voices singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly. 

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,

Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;

With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,

And three trees on the low sky,

And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

But there was no information, and so we continued

And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon

Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory. 

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: were we led all that way for

Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly

We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.

21 HE QI NATIVITY THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.jpg | GOSPEL VIEW FROM CHINA He Qi first saw Jesus’ face in an old magazine. Now he paints his own images of the biblical story. "Artwork has no national boundary, but an artist always has his nationality," says He Qi (pronounced ho-chee) of China. Though a fine-art citizen of the world, He chooses to continue living in his native country. "I love my homeland because my life, my rejoicing, and my suffering have been closely linked with it." He also loves something more than his homeland. During the Cultural Revolution, He was in the countryside painting images of Mao Zedong. One day he saw Raphael’s Madonna and Child in an old magazine. "I was very moved by the softness of the Virgin’s smile," he told William McGurn of Far Eastern Economic Review (Feb. 26, 1998). "Everywhere around me people claimed to be seeking truth but had their knives out." Raphael’s painting alone did not convert He, although it did capture his imagination. "There are two different ways in China for people to become a Christian," he says. "One is by the strong influence from his family background; another way is by his own choice—‘step by step.’ I belong to the second way." He has done doctoral studies in Europe and has been an artist in residence in the United States. Currently he is artist in residence and professor at Nanjing Theological Seminary.

www.academia.edu/207910/The_Sages_and_the_Star-Child_An_Introduction_to_the_Revelation_of_the_Magi_An_Ancient_Christian_Apocryphon

Alexander Lucie-Smith: The Magi come from "the East" and the Matthean story seems to indicate that their journey took two years, as Herod later has all the male children under the age of two put to death "in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi" [Matthew 2:16]. The furthest East one could take as a starting point is of course China. Are we meant to understand the Magi as Chinese scholars who took to the long overland route from China, the fabled Silk Road, in their search for the infant King of the Jews whose star they had seen? It is an idea that I very much like. I have a very strong desire to see China become Christian. Might this understanding of the Magi help with the evangelisation of China?

Axis Powers: Hetalia, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan

Paul Kennedy: Asia will be the center of the global economy. The global order is all ready being transformed by the Nations of Asia, as they realign with China as the primary power at the center.

Mohamed Hassan Saeed: The Middle East region, which is witnessing great transformations, needs the Chinese wisdom and policy which stands on the principle of non-intervention in other countries’ internal affairs.