In this episode of the Silk and Steel podcast, host Carl Zha welcomes back Dr. Warwick Powell – expert on international geopolitics and China – to break down the current global crisis.
🔍 What you'll learn:
- Why Trump "tacoed" on Iran – and why he can't declare victory
- The $100 billion war cost – and what the US is cutting instead (education, school lunches)
- AUKUS submarines: Australia paying billions for SECOND-HAND US subs (no warranty)
- The "constrained optimality" Orwellian bureaucratese – and the citizen's commission fighting back
- Shangri-La Dialogue: Why Hegseth didn't mention Taiwan (and why that terrifies Taipei)
- Japan & Philippines drawing ocean boundaries – through Taiwan's EEZ
- Why the US forward base network is now unviable (Iran proved it)
- China's oil reserves: 1.4 billion barrels (larger than US, Japan & Europe combined)
- The "oil reserves filled with water" meme – anti-China copium explained
- Coal-to-liquid, Russian oil, and why China is fine – while Japan is buying naphtha from China
- Dirty wars ahead: US shifting from conventional to unconventional warfare
🎙️ Key quotes:
"China has barely touched its known reserves. The dissidents just hate that China got well prepared."
"The US is now a combination of extraction and perfidy."
