The U.S., China, Taiwan, and the Coming Collapse of Global Stability (with Peter Zeihan)

Change Agents with Andy Stumpf

IRONCLAD

Society & Culture

4.9 • 648 Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s episode, Andy sits down with geopolitical strategist and author Peter Zeihan, founder of Zeihan on Geopolitics. They discuss Taiwan’s role in the global semiconductor supply chain and its relationship with China. The conversation covers the challenges the U.S. faces in reshoring manufacturing, China’s demographic trends, and the potential consequences of a military conflict over Taiwan. They also address issues related to AI development, global food security, and the need for investment in U.S. industrial and energy infrastructure. Sponsors: Firecracker Farm Use code IRONCLAD to get 15% off your first order at https://firecracker.farm/ AmmoSquared Visit AmmoSquared.com today for a special offer and keep yourself fully stocked. With over 100,000 members and thousands of 5-star ratings, Your readiness is their mission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	But the second factor that is actually more important and happened at the same time is China
0:06.5	industrialized and urbanized.
0:08.6	When you live on the farm, kids are free labor.
0:10.5	You have a lot of them.
0:12.1	They're an economic asset.
0:13.5	When you move into town, they're just an expense.
0:16.3	You have fewer of them.
0:18.0	Well, over 40 years, China went from being roughly 80% urban, excuse me,
0:22.6	80% rural to 80% urban. And so the birth rate dropped by 75% just from that,
0:30.7	one child policy is on top of that. Their birth rate dropped below population replacement levels,
0:35.3	probably around 1885 to 1990.
0:40.8	Today, in the major cities, it's less than 0.4.
0:50.9	Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back.
1:27.5	Hope you're ready for another episode of Change Agents, an Ironclad original presented by Firecracker Farm. Now, let's dive in. Okay. How many people in the U.S. do you think could find Taiwan on the map inside of the... It's, you know, we're a lot better at that than we were 20 years ago, so I'm going to go with one and four. Man. Well, yeah, they could find it. You know, honestly, I think we have to start it. I think we have to start broad and work our way narrow. So can you paint for me the current picture, Taiwan and its importance? Because I think most people understand, obviously we're in a global economy, but we got U.S., China. there's some interesting things going on. I know we're going to talk about. Two or three, yeah. Yeah. But Taiwan sits, you know, I'm not going to say necessarily in between the two, but metaphorically in between the two countries. So I think we'd probably be best if you can paint with the broad strokes, just the situation as it is. and maybe, I don't know, how it's changed, maybe the most massive changes or the most
1:48.5	important changes you've seen maybe the last decade or two.
1:51.5	Sure.
1:53.5	Let me give you three things.
1:55.0	And honestly, in the last 10 years, nothing's changed.
1:58.0	Nothing.
1:58.5	Perfect.
1:59.5	Yeah.
2:05.7	Number one, Taiwan is democracy. China is probably the purest example of absolute fascism that the human race has ever experienced. So, you know,
	...

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