Fair point. But isn’t sending the undesirables to the salt mines a tradition that goes way back to the dawn of civilization?
But isn’t sending the undesirables to the salt mines a tradition that goes way back to the dawn of civilization?
No this is different
Sending any people other the “racially superior Han” would be counter productive to the Xi Dynasty’s propaganda. It would be more trouble for the guards than it is worth. So Han it must be.
Even if China was so inclined to mine it, which it does not seen like they are - they have the lithium market cornered as it is. No one else is likely to want to do high altitude mining with low end scrape the bottom of the barrel laborers.