#466 – Jeffrey Wasserstrom: China, Xi Jinping, Trade War, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mao
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Who are the speakers in this episode?
The following is a conversation with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a historian of modern China. And now a quick few second mention of 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 slash 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 the 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 lexfriedman.com contact. And now, on to 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, I 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. Offer is for new U.S. customers with a minimum financial commitment to see if you qualify at oracle.com. That's oracle.com. 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. We're in 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.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
Who are the speakers in this episode?
0:00–24:08
2
What are the similarities and differences between Xi Jinping and Mao Zedong?
24:08–50:23
3
What are the core ideas of Confucius and how do they influence modern China?
50:23–1:04:19
4
What happened during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989?
1:04:19–3:14:04
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Lex Fridman Podcast
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