The Peter Zeihan Podcast Series - Bring on the Chinese Investments in LATAM || Peter Zeihan

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

A lot of you have been worried about all of China's investments in Latin America. I get that it might sound a little scary, but you need to put these actions into the broader context of China's circumstances.Join the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/PeterZeihanFull Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/zeihan/bring-on-the-chinese-investments-in-latam

Everybody, Peter Zine, here come to you from Tonga Riro National Park in New Zealand. This is Terranaki Falls, just about done with the circuit. Oh, thank God, my back hurts. Anyway, taking an entry from the Patreon page specifically, tourist. Specifically, it's, do I worry about China's investments into Latin America? There's a big port going into Peru. There's a lot of mineral extraction stuff going into Brazil.

There's a general infrastructure going to Colombia. And then of course purchase agreements for everything under the sun to Argentina. What do I worry about? And he's like, no. I mean, don't get me wrong. There's a Monroe Doctrine thing here going on. But we haven't had a president in the last 25 years who's really acted on it. Certainly not Obama or Trump or Biden. So this is a very bipartisan kind of slouch strategically if that's the thing you're concerned about. But I'm really not concerned about it. Remember that the Chinese are literally dying. out and if they want to throw some of their limited resources into the western hemisphere to build physical infrastructure that will help industrialize the western hemisphere to prepare for when china's

gone or recover after china's gone i say let them uh specifically the port in peru probably isn't going to get too much activity uh there isn't a really good transshipment port anywhere on the west coast of south america so having one makes sense and here lo and behold the chinese are building it for everybody uh in argentine it's more straight up sales issue. Those things can always go somewhere else when the Chinese are no longer the high price better. Colombia is a mountainous country where the population, well, it's unique. Usually, like in Mexico, you live on the top of the plateaus to get above the tropics, or anywhere else you live at the bottom of the mountains where it's cheaper to build. But in Colombia, because it's right on the equator and the

mountains are really steep in their jungle, they live on the side of the mountains. The top is tundra, the bottom is hard jungle, and everyone lives in the middle. And so infrastructure is really hard. And if the Chinese want to pay for that great because the US has a free trade agreement with Columbia and any Colombian success is one for us as well and then finally there's Brazil the Chinese are spending to build infrastructure from the coast up the escarpment where Sao Paulo is and then down into the interior again expensive geography to develop and the Chinese are paying for it all so if the Chinese want to pay for tomorrow's world I say let them