#466 – Jeffrey Wasserstrom: China, Xi Jinping, Trade War, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mao

**Lex Fridman** (0:00)
The following is a conversation with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a historian of modern China. And now a quick few second mention to each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got Oracle for cloud computing, Tax Network USA for taxes, Shopify for selling stuff online, Element for electrolytes and AG1 for a daily multivitamin. Choose wisely, my friends. Let me make the public service announcement that I've done a few times about these ad reads. I do them on RSS, I do them on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, based on the feedback I've gotten in the survey, lexfriedman.com/survey.
Many enjoy it. A quick, random, non sequitur insights into whatever is going on in this particular mind. I don't do the ad reads in a normal way. Half the time, I don't really even talk about the sponsor. I'm just talking about stuff that I'm thinking about, except maybe for a bit of a shout out to the sponsor for being awesome, and a quick description of what they do. Sometimes the sponsor itself, the topic inspires me to think about certain kinds of topics. Anyway, that's the point to continuously be innovating how to do this podcast thing. What is this, who am I, and who are you, and why is it the connection between the two of us is so real? Me as a podcast fan, I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I legitimately feel like I am friends with the person I'm listening to. I think there's a real way in which that is fundamentally true. I think people mock that. I think people say that that's not a real connection. I think it's a real connection. I don't know. My life is fundamentally better for these friendships, real or not real. Who's to say I can't have some great imaginary friends? Anyway, hopefully these ad reads are interesting. If you skip them, please still check out the sponsors. Sign up, get whatever they're selling. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. Also, if you want to get in touch with me for whatever reason, go to lexfridman.com/contact. And now onto the full ad reads. Let's go. This episode is brought to you by Oracle, a company providing a fully integrated stack of cloud applications and cloud platform services. These guys do infrastructure well. Single platform for the infrastructure, for the database, application development and obviously injecting AI into everything including the pitches. These guys do compute infrastructure well and have been doing it for many, many years. Obviously this episode about China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, trade is very relevant to this topic. Boy, sit back and think about the future of compute and how it is inextricably connected to the geopolitics, to the bullshit, to the madness of the online world where they're talking shit to each other, the individual humans of the individual nations and the leaders of those humans and the leaders of those nations. Anyway, cut your bill in half when you switch to OCI, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Offers for new US customers with a minimum financial commitment to see if you qualify at oracle.com/lex. That's oracle.com/lex. This episode is also brought to you by Tax Network USA, a full service tax firm focused on solving tax problems for individuals and small businesses. Whenever I see those three letters, USA, my heart fills with pride. I don't know. I see stuff online where people are talking shit about this country, where there's experts and historians and scholars and trolls talking about the collapsing empire that is the United States. There may be elements that signal that. There may be reasons for concern, but let's not forget, how incredibly brilliant the humans that make up this country are, how resourceful they are, how vibrant their creativity. There really is a consequence to the freedoms, the individual freedoms we experience as humans here. But anyway, USA, I love this country. And yeah, a lot of it does run on taxes. The reality is the tax law is complicated. And so you have to figure out this mess. And Tax Network USA helps you with the mess. If you missed the April 15th deadline, yes, I'm talking to you. I see you. Wearing this together, my friend. I'm not very good with deadlines. Perhaps you're not very good at deadlines. I'm giving you a virtual hug. Let's get our shit together and claw our way out of the whatever bullshit we've got ourselves into. Talk with one of their strategists for free today. Call 1-800-958-1000 or go to tnusa.com/lex.
This episode is also brought to you by Shopify, a platform designed for anyone to sell anywhere with a great looking online store. I don't know why I said the beginning of that sentence fast. Sometimes I speak quickly, sometimes slowly. My mind is just not made for speaking. I think very fast and speak very slowly. And it creates for some really interesting non-linear dynamics of interacting between a brain that's way ahead of the mouth and the mouth struggles. The struggle creates a third person kind of anxiety that the brain has to also deal with while it's thinking about the next thing, also coming up with different trajectories of thought. And so I'm generating a mess, but I'm enjoying it. I think I'm supposed to talk about Shopify. I'm not doing so well at that right now. It's a website, a platform where you can sell stuff. By the way, a lot of really fascinating discussions about the way China thinks about its economy, about its politics, about the interplay between the government and the entrepreneur. I'll probably do a lot more episodes on that topic. Shopify is a really interesting case study. China is a really interesting case study. So sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/lex. That's all lowercase. Go to shopify.com/lex. They take your business to the next level today. This episode is brought to you by Element, my daily zero sugar and delicious electrolyte mix. I often think about the biochemistry of thirst, and no, not the urban dictionary definition of thirst, although I think about that as well. But in this particular topic, I'm thinking about the biochemistry of your body communicating with you, the neurobiology of awareness of the malnourishment of the rest of the body, and how all of that evolved. Started as a bacteria, fish, mammal, now we'll get thirsty. Need the salt, need the electrolytes, need the water. I'm getting that in the brain. Sometimes the brain doesn't tell you that directly. Sometimes it tells you that through a headache, and you feel like shit. And you wonder what's going on. Well, a lot of that, a lot, a lot of life's problems could be solved with a nap, with a shower, and with a drink of water, with magnesium, potassium and sodium. It's fucking ridiculous really. We are just meat vehicles that need to chill out. Anyway, I am doing a bunch of interesting conversations about Darwinian evolution. Darwin, fascinating guy, evolution, fascinating topic. I can't wait. Get a sample pack for free with any purchase. Try it at drinklmnt.com/lex. This episode is also brought to you by AG1, an all-in-one daily drink to support better health and peak performance. I recently got a chance to hang out with my family, and they're all fans of AG1, and we talked about it, and it's great. It's great how we're talking to each of them. There's just a different approach to health, but they're all fighting the battle of being healthy and winning, honestly. I do see health as a kind of individual and of one puzzle that we all solve. We gather a lot of information. As best we can, we understand the latest state of the art signs, but really at the end of the day, it's a personal puzzle that has to be solved. How does a healthy lifestyle fit into all the rest of the anxieties, the psychology, the crazy schedule, the motivations, the ambitions, the insecurities, all of that? How do you figure out that puzzle and do that in a way where it's stable across weeks and months and becomes a ritual? Then, of course, the psychology, ritual comes into play. All of that is really fascinating. All right. AG1 will give you one month supply of fish oil when you sign up at drinkag1.com/lex.