Now you have one piece of the puzzle involving the uproar over Myanmar.
I was wondering why it keeps making the news.
Now, it makes total sense
Myanmar’s situation tells us that China’s lead in REE processing is highly unstable. Unlike its own REE reserves, China does not have territorial control over REE ores mined in other countries.
Instead, China relies on commercial contracts to secure foreign ore to process, and long-term international contracts are often subject to re-negotiation, re-interpretation, and repudiation.
Eliminating China’s stranglehold on refined REEs requires only the political will by the U.S. and other countries to build or expand REE-processing sites outside China.
But, but, but ( as Larry Kudlow would say ), This is easier said than done. In the west, we have the ENVIRONMENTALISTS and their media supporters to contend with.
People generally resist being neighbors to industrial sites that create toxic and radioactive waste. Careful site selection and research into new refining techniques that reduce toxic wastes could lessen public resistance. However, it is extremely unlikely that all public concerns will be abated, at least in the near term.
This illustrates the absolute necessity of political leadership and resolve to protect our high-tech world against the manipulation by China through its leadership in refined REEs.
And the folks running China aren’t stupid. We can expect China to fund political and environmental groups to stop new REE-processing facilities, much like how Russia funds U.S. environmental groups that lobby and protest the development of U.S. fossil fuels.
We can expect China to release or fund stories in the press opposed to new REE-processing facilities. We can expect China to use every imaginable coercive means necessary to artificially prop up its power in the REE markets. Make no mistake: the fight over new REE-refining facilities will be heated and very public.
Of course we have the already bought and PAID FOR Joe Biden ( through his son, Hunter as bag man ), who will be willing to do anything his CCP money men tell him to do.