Peter Zeihan

The Himalayas are in the way.

independent of the fact that that would be really hard.

So there's nowhere they can go.

The resources aren't within easy reach.

The demographic situation requires Star Wars-style cloning, and the strategic situation can't be solved with a Navy that is anything less than five times the powerful power of the American Navy, and they're nowhere close.

They have a lot of ships, but whenever you see a tonnage-per-tonnage comparison for a ship, keep in mind that their ships suck and are a lot heavier.

So

A 40,000-ton Chinese carrier and a 40,000-ton American carrier, this one is an order of magnitude more powerful than this one.

They're slower.

They can't maneuver.

They need too much fuel before you consider things about the hardware that they might launch.

Exactly.

Just purely out of desperation, shape the environment on their way out the door.

I can't rule it out.

But generally, countries don't die that way.

There has to be something that they think that they can achieve.

The reason that I don't dismiss it completely...

is that Chairman Xi has basically gotten rid of all of his advisors.

His last real one was seven years ago now.

And when you eat nothing but the propaganda all day, you know, it kind of messes with your head.