China's Geography Problem | Wendover Productions

0:00This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. This episode is brought to you by Palm Olive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners. Sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palm Olive Ultra. Palm Olive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean, and the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work,

1:00use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job posts the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit at ND.com slash podcast. That's ND.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. This video was made possible by Squarespace. Build your custom website for 10% off by going to squarespace.com slash Wendover. China is a country both blessed and cursed by geography. On one hand, its land has allowed for the country to grow to almost 1.4 billion people, but on the other hand, it really doesn't have great geographical protection. The beginning of what most people call Chinese history often start with the yellow river civilization. And there's a good reason why this settlement grew into the most populous country in the world. The floodplain of the yellow river

2:01is some of the best agricultural land in the world. In fact, the entirety of eastern China is perfectly suited for agriculture. This was and still is crucial to the country's success. What's more, this area is just warm and wet enough that farmers can do what is known as double cropping. Once the main crop of rice is cultivated in June and July, another slightly less productive crop can be planted for October cultivation. This increases rice output by about 25%, which means China can make more food using the same amount of land. Europe mostly relies on wheat to feed its population, which only outputs four million calories of food per acre of farmland. Rice, on the other hand, grows 11 million calories worth per acre. It's easy to see why there are so many people in China. What China does have its geographical challenges to the South-Aid borders to three countries, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. The borders between these three countries in China seem almost arbitrarily set because they sort of were.

3:05Vietnam was set after the Sino-French war. Laos' was set following its involvement in the Vietnam war, and Myanmar's was set following a small war with China in the 60s. None was naturally set by the environment. All were chosen arbitrarily by humans at war. These countries are not insignificant. Combine they have nearly one million active military personnel. While China, the much larger country, has just over two million. Significant conflict with any of these countries would not be a one-sided war. While China would have the technological advantage, any of these three countries would have a significant home field advantage. Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar are all jungle countries, one of the most difficult environments for warfare. This was part of the reason why the Vietnam war lasted so long. It's just so hard to move troops in the jungle so everything slows down. Without any geographical protection of its borders, it would be significantly easier for Vietnam, Laos, or Myanmar to invade China than the reverse.

4:05But China does have an advantage elsewhere. China and India just aren't good friends. They have border disputes, military conflicts, political differences, so it's just hard for them to get along, and that's why Tibet is so important. Tibet was historically its own empire. It was only in the last 300 years that China took it over. Tibetan people are ethnically different than the Han Chinese inhabiting China's east. It just doesn't make sense for Tibet to be part of China, except militarily. Only 0.2% of China's population lives in Tibet, which accounts for nearly 13% of the country's area. More people live in the inner four districts of Beijing than the entirety of Tibet. It's just incredibly desolate, but it serves a purpose. If China didn't rule Tibet, then India would. Maybe not formally, but there's little chance that an independent Tibet would not be economically and culturally dominated by either India or China. It just doesn't have enough power economically

5:06or militarily to resist, but in China's view, it could not and cannot allow for an Indian Tibet. Indian rule of Tibet would mean that there would be no geographical protection between the populated area of China and India because Tibet is that geographical protection. Not only does Tibet extend China's border to the Himalayas, it. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. This episode is brought to you by Palm Olive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners. Sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palm Olive Ultra. Palm Olive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease,

6:11leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at Palm Olive.com. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use indeed sponsor jobs. It gives your job posts the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this shelf will get a $75 sponsor job credit at indeed.com slash podcast. That's indeed.com slash podcast, terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for indeed sponsor jobs. It's also an unpopulated area without the transportation infrastructure needed for an invading India to advance a large number of troops towards Eastern China. But that also means that there's not the transportation infrastructure necessary for China to advance tourist India, but China is trying to change that. They recently opened the World's highest railroad to Tibet.

7:12They're building highways constantly and they also opened a large airport in Yangtze just miles away from the border. In the near term, the goal of these projects is to further integrate Tibet into China. The government has all but failed at winning over the native Tibetan population, but they can change who lives in Tibet. Hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese have moved into Tibet and many more visit each year. The government knows that Tibet's usefulness is diminished if when a foreign military shows up, the population thinks that means liberation rather than invasion. But there's another reason China needs Tibet. Water. The whole eastern zone of agricultural productivity exists because of all the water from Tibet. The yellow and Yangtze rivers, China's two longest rivers, both get their water from Tibet and foreign control of the water supply of the country would in the government's mind, strike a catastrophic blow to the country's food security. If there were hypothetically a significant mountain range separating Tibet from eastern China,

8:13there's a good chance it would still be independent. The water would still come from China and the mountains would act as the geographical protection that China desires. But to the north is another one of China's assets, Mongolia. It's an enormous, sparsely populated, friendly country. With the Gobi Desert and other desolate terrain, there's just a little chance that any modern land-based army could make it across with any efficiency. The supply lines would be enormously long and by the time they got to the Chinese border, there would have been ample warning. But then again, who would want to invade? Mongolia's only other neighbor is Russia, which is a friendly ally of China both militarily and economically. China need not worry about its northern border until relations with Russia's sour. But that leaves the eastern border. Now you would think that this would be China's safest border, the ocean, but you have to consider that powerful states lead just off China shores, the most powerful one being the US. The United States has a significant, Pacific military presence with bases in South Korea,

9:16Japan, and Guam. It's also a close ally with Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Meaning that if a serious dispute with China occurred, the US would have no problem blockading China and cutting off its maritime access. And of course, China knows this. That's why China has spent so much time, energy, and political capital to establish sovereignty in the South China Sea by building military bases and artificial islands. It knows that it needs these islands, so it has sovereignty over the area so it can reach the Pacific in case of war. But ironically, its actions in the area are souring its relations with the very nations that China needs on its side. The Philippines, for example, doesn't have a bullet proof relationship with the US. While the two countries are allies, Philippine leadership has attempted to distance themselves from the US. If China hadn't ruined its relationship with the Philippines over the South China Sea dispute, it could have won them to their side,

10:16which would allow China crucial access to the Pacific if the US attempted a naval blockade. China's entire economy relies on exports, so restrictions to access to the oceans would lead to economic ruin. With its enormous population, China also relies on the importation of food, most of which comes on ships. Without jobs or food, there's a good chance that the population would rise up against the government and end the current regime. China didn't want to be a global power, spreading its influence to every continent until recently. It wanted to be the dominant power in its region, Asia. But historically, it kept its affairs within the region. It never colonized outside of Asia, and for much of history, it didn't have a significant navy to project its power around the world. But that has changed because China got so big. China is now of a size where it cannot support its population with its size alone. Self-sufficiency in food production was a major aspect of China's domestic policy for decades,

11:19but the country has found a way to move past it as its economy has grown. Africa has emerged almost as China's China. It supplies the country that supplies the world. China has pumped enormous amounts of money into the continent in what some describe as a form of neocolonialism. Chinese state-backed corporations have bought huge amounts of land in Africa to mine minerals, drill for oil, and grow food. China now imports more food and oil than it exports. While that is a sign of the development of its economy, it also means that it is now reliant on foreign powers, which is a vulnerable position for a country that is often an odd with some of those foreign powers. China doesn't have bad geography. It is some of the best in the world which has allowed for it to grow into the largest country in the world. But as it grows into a more and more powerful and developed country, it needs to be cognizant of its vulnerabilities if the current regime wishes to continue. It's clear that because of its geography, the country is in a more precarious position

12:21than some may think. If there were ever a reason to go to war with China, the country is surrounded to the south and east by countries that would likely side with NATO powers. To the west and north, China is surrounded by countries and regions without the infrastructure to support China in a war. China is a nuclear power, which means formal war with other superpowers is unlikely. But if it ever were to happen, it's hard to deny that its major disadvantage is its geography. I just went through the process of building the new website for my other channel, half as interesting. All in, it took me about an hour to make this simple website and the hosting fees are very reasonable. For whatever you do, whether it's a YouTube channel, a business, or anything else, having a professional web presence is incredibly important because that's how people find you. Squarespace makes this easy with their beautiful templates created by world class designers, powerful website builder, and 24-7 award-winning customer service. No matter what you do,

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