That was back when we had an American president.
Things are different now.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 10/19/2010 12:53:34 PM PDT by jhpigott
By KEITH BRADSHER Published: October 19, 2010
HONG KONG — China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted shipments of some of those same materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said on Tuesday.
The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further ratchet up already rising trade and currency tensions with the West. Until recently, China typically sought quick and quiet accommodations on trade issues. But the interruption in rare earth supplies is the latest sign from Beijing that Chinese officials are willing to use their growing economic muscle.
“The embargo is expanding” beyond Japan, said one of the three rare earth industry officials, all of whom insisted on anonymity for fear of business retaliation by Chinese authorities. They said Chinese customs officials imposed the broader shipment restrictions Monday morning, hours after a top Chinese official had summoned international news media Sunday night to denounceUnited States trade actions.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So, as the pot starts on its way to a boil, we, the frogs begin to feel some heat.
As I’ve been saying for the last 20 years, who controls the resources controls the world. The Chinese are busy raping then entire continent of Africa while they quietly build “friendly” political ties with other nations rich in needed resources and easily led into communism, such as Venezuela, through their friends, the Russians.
The Government epa have close all America mines
No, they are an ever growing user of those metals. They are doing the same thing with base metals such as tin and copper.
They do not need to sell it. Every toy, every appliance, every motor or servo or piece of ordnance that has a cobalt-Samarium or Nd.Fe.B magnet made there needs the rare earths. China is one of the largest miners and refiners of tin. They suspended exports. Go look at the tin, nickel, and cobalt price curves on the London Metals Market and see what they have done.
Try building a jet engine or machining tool bits without cobalt.
China has been building PC factories and wire drawing mills and solder factories for a long time, and they are not finished yet.
We are going to actually have to get our hands dirty and do things here, or we'll be strangled.
Ruh Roe.
This is a huge story.
China has been steadily reducing export quotas since 2005 for rare earth elements, which consist of 17 metals used in crucial new green technologies like hybrid cars, wind turbines and superconductors, as well as in missile guidance systems and mobile phones.
*
National Defense needs once were give priority over most all others, but now it seems to be down the list from the EPA, commercial interests, and whatever lobbyists are passing around the biggest campaign contributions (and other things of value).
That was back when we had an American president.
Things are different now.
Interesting.
Thank you.
Now you’ve hit upon the issue:
There were contracts for the materials written, and money has changed hands.
The companies producing it are now not getting paid, and the people who paid for the materials are not receiving it.
People are still mining it, however, and people are still building stuff with the material, which means they all still need to be paid by someone.
So, the Chinese could say, “Well, we can make that here instead - move your facility into China. We’ll give you a good price on the materials, you can produce your goods, and the PLA will take a 51% of the company you have here in China.”
Or, the Chinese can say, “We don’t care about the contract, and in fact we hope your company that makes those goods (missiles, batteries, GPS, refinery processing fluid, etc.) goes out of business.
Either way, we are being muscled out of something strategic. My guess is Taiwan and the South China Sea. For Japan, the Kurile Islands perhaps.
The Red Chinese don’t think there will be a backlash.
Forget about getting those resources from Russia either. Russia has locked down its mineral resources tight, and will only export to CIS and SCO nations and countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua.
This is one significant negative concerning the collapse of the old USSR. That event made it possible for all to many in our government and corporate world to start ignoring national defense needs, and to pretend that it didn't matter if we no longer produced some critical raw materials, or no longer produced much of the materiel needed by the armed forces.
The USSR forced many to focus on those needs, many who were looking for any excuse to get out from under those national defense restrictions on how they did business.
ROFL !
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