China halts rare earth exports, sparking fears of shortages in critical industries

[OortCloud]

Example number eleventy billion on why exporting all your industrial needs to one political adversary is a bad idea.

I agree with this but shutting these imports down with zero plan in place for how to replace them is bananas.

 

[BadThad]

The tech race is on and it’s not just about gadgets anymore. We're upgrading ourselves into oblivion. Phones replaced every two years, PCs trashed every 3–5, appliances dying on schedule. Everything is disposable, designed to fail. Planned obsolescence isn’t a flaw...it’s the plan.

And the masterminds? Our beloved tech giant monsters, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Nvidia. They churn out just enough "innovation" to make your current device feel like garbage. Buy new or be left behind. Repair? Compatibility? Environmental impact? Please, ffs, there’s no profit in sustainability.

But while we’re busy refreshing our phones and graphics cards, there’s another upgrade happening.....the global arms race. AI enhanced warfare, hypersonic missiles, autonomous drones, it’s not just about who has the fastest CPU, but who can destroy more, faster. We're engineering smarter ways to kill each other while pretending it’s all about progress.

Humans aren’t just destroying the planet, nope, we’re designing our own extinction. One product launch, one weapons test, one upgrade at a time.

And for all you that think Trump is going to stop this...Please. You think Trump, or anyone like him can rein this in? He couldn’t even manage a tweet without causing an international incident. Controlling global tech and military escalation? Out of his depth and out of his mind.

I genuinely think Trump believes he’s trying to make America great again. But slogans don’t stop global tech monopolies. They don’t regulate AI arms development. They don’t halt environmental collapse driven by corporate greed. He’s one man trying to steer a machine that’s long outgrown any single person’s control. America doesn’t just need to be “great again”, nope....it needs to be wise, sustainable, and united.

Greatness isn’t about catchphrases or nostalgia. It’s about foresight, responsibility, and long-term thinking....none of which you’ll find in late night rants or gold plated campaign hats. He’s a man trying to steer a runaway train with a branding slogan and no brakes.

The harsh truth? We did this. We drove ourselves here. We fed the cycle with every impulse buy, every toss of a “still-working” gadget, every moment we let profit trump (pun intended) principle. And it won’t be us who pay the full price, hell no, it’ll be the generations after us. Our kids and theirs will inherit a scorched planet, fractured societies, and a world designed for short term gain and long term collapse.

Glass half full much? Jez So, when economies start booming and everything takes off, will you issue a retraction?

 

[BadThad]

I'm forced to assume that you're one of the paid Chinese posters on the internet at this point. Your statement about the f-35 doesn't ring true at all as a matter of fact every pilot that's ever flown the thing and a war game against previous generation fighters goes holy crap because they managed to shoot everything down before the generation 4.5 fighters get a lock. The only time it's worse is what it turns into a gun dog fight and they're zero reason for that to ever happen.

Ensure China could refuse to manufacture certain things but it hurts their economy worse actually we actually have the stuff here in America to build iPhones it exists we can't build them in such large amounts yet but we have the actual ability to do it, and thanks to Trump that capability is expanding rapidly.

As far as Intel's new process I don't really care is TSMC can do it better if until starts fabbing the chips solely here in America and assembling them here in America which is their promise I'll stick to buying them as a matter of fact I'll stop buying horizon unless AMD starts assembling theirs here as well. As soon as one of the GPU makers starts assembling the GPUs here which ironically Intel could be the first one to do it I will stick to solely buying their product same thing with any sort of motherboard I will pay the premium for Superior American production. And at the end of the day that's what this really boils down to American made cost more but it tends to be 10 times higher quality than anything they can produce in China because in China quantity over quality they don't understand what the word quality means.

But as I said your posts tell me that more than likely you're on a VPN out of China and are acting as an official mouthpiece to the CCP.

The internet is full of Chinese propagandists and globalists that are paid to spew the communist line via negative comments about Trump and capitalism - all the while pretending to be American. It's worked well! They have effectively brainwashed the vulnerable and ignorant in the world to hate Trump.

 

[Loadedaxe]

Glass half full much? Jez So, when economies start booming and everything takes off, will you issue a retraction?

Nope, glass is always full...full of reality.

I’m not some blind follower waving a flag for any politician. Some of us actually weigh all options, and vote for who we believe is the best fit in that moment. And yes....I voted for Trump.

But I’m not under any illusions either. Hes got four years. That’s it. You don’t rewrite the system in four years. You don’t drain swamps, rebuild economies, or rewire a broken machine overnight. Especially not when you’ve got a Congress that isn’t exactly playing cheerleader.

People love to act like the president can just sign a paper and change the world. News flash, it doesn’t work like that. Executive orders can only go so far. The real game is in the halls of Congress, in the bureaucracy, in a system built to resist fast change.

So yeah, cheer for Trump, speak your mind with 1000 posts on a tech site, defending what is going on. But if you’re expecting miracles, you’re gonna stay thirsty.

Because that glass? It’s full. Full of hard, cold reality.

Will you issue a retraction?

 

[mailpup]

Back on topic please. Thank you.

 

[monkeylove]

Example number eleventy billion on why exporting all your industrial needs to one political adversary is a bad idea.

That started in the 1970s, and did not even involve political adversaries (I think they began with Mexico), because U.S. companies wanted to take advantage of cheap labor abroad, and later wanted to sell closer to expanding markets.

 

[monkeylove]

Thats nice, time to open more mines, we have plenty of these ourselves, we just dont mine them to protect lizards, time to kill the lizards and mine the metals

They recently found large amounts of lithium in the states.

 

[monkeylove]

please do. Remember to pay the slaves, sorry, miners, same money as chinese do. Can't wait to see the large factories for shoes and trousers production, to make them cost 3 times more, but to pay slaves, sorry, workers, max 1 usd per hour.
but killing lizards, I'm sure this where US will have enormous success.
Just... why the hell did they move all their factories out of US? Did someone made them to? Or just was enormously cheaper to do that? And ... if this wont be cheaper anymore, who will buy it?

Cheap labor plus cheap prices when one manufactures close to consumer markets.

Also, it's ironic that those who are critical of current circumstances implicitly want to keep availing of cheap labor from overseas, and probably even counting that labor will remain cheap indefinitely.

 

[monkeylove]

"China's dominance in rare earth production is rooted in its rich deposits near Longnan in Jiangxi Province. The region hosts mines that extract heavy rare earths through chemical-intensive processes known to cause severe pollution – a practice temporarily halted but seemingly resumed recently."

This is similar to Cracking that is being practiced in US to extract oil and pollute the soil and environment

Do you mean fracking? They had to do that because conventional production peaked in 2006. That was admitted by the IEA a few years later.

 

[monkeylove]

I'm a helpless romantic you cought me. Someone has to be a cheerleader in the echo chamber that enjoys the fruits of capitalism' labor. Also my statement is metaphoric is likely inevitable outcome of this all. ( At least I am hopeful for a silver lining)
Luckily I have been seeing more articles on alternatives to precious metals reliance when it comes to semiconductors.
Crazy part is that China is showing face what the end goal is to become the ultimate monopoly of everything.
Notice wall street and cronies love this type of monopolistic behavior and are backing China in all this.

Not just Wall Street and cronies, but even the public that wants cheap goods. Remember the article about U.S. contractors complaining that immigration policies may lead to higher building costs? Apparently, they were relying on cheap labor from foreigners throughout, and ironically wanted that to be maintained.

 

[monkeylove]

Perhaps an increase in product costs will make consumers ask that goods nolonger be disposable. It's weird that I have tools that are 50+ years old and still keep working, but I'm replacing my new tools often once a year.

The race to the bottom has been horrible for all aspects of society and cost more long term. I try to go by "buy once, cry once" but even that's nearly impossible in the world of cheap Chinese garbage.

That's because companies realized several decades ago that if they made high-quality products, then they'd be out of business because they won't be able to sell more each time. And that affects employees, too, as they keep asking for promotions, bonuses, and raises, and one requirement for ensuring that is more sales.

That's why they came up with planned obsolescence. Look it up.

 

[monkeylove]

I agree with this on the main points, especially with the race to the bottom one.

I remember being called a communist when circa 2001-2002 I was asking about what’s going to happen when the bottom is actually reached. How will we recover, I was asking. What’s going to happen when there’s a global event like a pandemic or a major conventional war, with so little strategic production capability left and even that is heavily dependent on components and materials coming from countries which may not be our allies anymore or simply be incapacitated.

And here we are. Rare earth and minerals are essential to our defence and high tech industries but all the mining and refining was shipped overseas in the name of the almighty dollar (whose allmightiness is starting to wear off as of late, btw.)

You’d think this major issue will be dealt with by using a lot of intelligent, tactful, strategic diplomacy and investing, alas the circus clowns seem to be in charge now in the US.

It's a Triffin dilemma: when your currency is used as a global reserve, then it will remain strong all the time. When that happens, then whatever you sell becomes too expensive for many and what you can buy from them becomes very cheap. In addition, it becomes more convenient for you to invest in other countries and to take advantage of them because their labor and resources would be too cheap for you. Meanwhile, flush with cash, you can spend a lot, not only for consumers but even for the military. Consumers will demand more cheap stuff and more credit to buy them, while the military will demand more advanced equipment.

At some point the same public, flush with credit but also debt, will start wondering why they have to fund a very expensive military. Well, if all you have is a hammer, then everything will look like a nail.

 

[dangh]

Cheap labor plus cheap prices when one manufactures close to consumer markets.

Also, it's ironic that those who are critical of current circumstances implicitly want to keep availing of cheap labor from overseas, and probably even counting that labor will remain cheap indefinitely.

1st, that was true in 19 century. Now, sometimes I get post faster from China or Japan than from the same country.

2nd, nothing is ironic. I'd be VERY happy to have production close to home and to have all people paid billions for their work. No issue with that. The issues I have are:

- the way, how the change has been introduced: timing, lack of communication and preparation with other countries, lack of any preparation or encouraging local producers to ensure they are ready to pick the lost supply chains, destructive tendencies of the change without any plan in place except 'it happen, do your best'

- focusing on insider trading, which seems like making sure the rich guys, who are friends, have information before everyone else, letting them making crazy money (at expense of the small players)

- even further removing all the protection from the laborers. This sure makes sense from the rich point of view, as they will need even cheaper workforce. Further removing any social protection is clearly aiming to have them working crazy hours for low salary. The wet dream of Musk to have workers sleeping in factory and 60 hours work week is just about to happen.

- politics, where a bully punch everyone around blindly, and then waiting for *** licking. China was strong enough to say f u, and orange guy got totally stumbled that strategy wasn't working. Now will see the surprise when he learn tariffs are paid by US citizens, not by commodity exporter...

Now, 'cheap' labour from overseas is what US companies were making their income on. Nike, Apple, anything just rely on that cheap labour. There is a lot of other 'not so cheap' labour, where people work on production of stuff which makes them a decent money for the level of life in their countries, which would be not enough to sustain themselves in US. All the molds production, bottles, usb cables, tailored parts, even labels, are very lucrative to them, but not for US companies. This guy tells this quite nicely:

We will see very shortly how well is this strategy working fora an average US citizen. We already know how well the local US pharma companies deal with drug prices where they have full control over it, making people paying 100s times more for extremely cheap (to produce) medicine like Insulin, so my take is that further reduction of competition will not make prices go down. This is already seen for all the very small businesses (e.g. board game producers) who are ceasing to exists or pausing any activities, and it will lead to further and stronger influence from larger corporations and richest people to enforce any madness they want to push over population.

 

[monkeylove]

1st, that was true in 19 century. Now, sometimes I get post faster from China or Japan than from the same country.

2nd, nothing is ironic. I'd be VERY happy to have production close to home and to have all people paid billions for their work. No issue with that. The issues I have are:

- the way, how the change has been introduced: timing, lack of communication and preparation with other countries, lack of any preparation or encouraging local producers to ensure they are ready to pick the lost supply chains, destructive tendencies of the change without any plan in place except 'it happen, do your best'

- focusing on insider trading, which seems like making sure the rich guys, who are friends, have information before everyone else, letting them making crazy money (at expense of the small players)

- even further removing all the protection from the laborers. This sure makes sense from the rich point of view, as they will need even cheaper workforce. Further removing any social protection is clearly aiming to have them working crazy hours for low salary. The wet dream of Musk to have workers sleeping in factory and 60 hours work week is just about to happen.

- politics, where a bully punch everyone around blindly, and then waiting for *** licking. China was strong enough to say f u, and orange guy got totally stumbled that strategy wasn't working. Now will see the surprise when he learn tariffs are paid by US citizens, not by commodity exporter...

Now, 'cheap' labour from overseas is what US companies were making their income on. Nike, Apple, anything just rely on that cheap labour. There is a lot of other 'not so cheap' labour, where people work on production of stuff which makes them a decent money for the level of life in their countries, which would be not enough to sustain themselves in US. All the molds production, bottles, usb cables, tailored parts, even labels, are very lucrative to them, but not for US companies. This guy tells this quite nicely:

We will see very shortly how well is this strategy working fora an average US citizen. We already know how well the local US pharma companies deal with drug prices where they have full control over it, making people paying 100s times more for extremely cheap (to produce) medicine like Insulin, so my take is that further reduction of competition will not make prices go down. This is already seen for all the very small businesses (e.g. board game producers) who are ceasing to exists or pausing any activities, and it will lead to further and stronger influence from larger corporations and richest people to enforce any madness they want to push over population.

It didn't apply in the nineteenth century because there was no mass consumer society then and a global economy to sustain it. And my point doesn't refer to delivery time.

It's ironic because the same critics who argue against immigration policies in the name of human rights and human dignity turn out to be against it because they were taking advantage of cheap labor from foreigners all along.

You can't have manufacturing closer to home not because of timing, lack of communication, insider trading, and politics but because the cost of living is higher locally, which means higher prices. Meanwhile, the cost of living is also rising in China and elsewhere because they're industrializing. Finally, if you're willing to pay more overall, then you can have the first, while you'll inevitably face the second. Which should be seen in light of what China's doing, as per the topic of this thread.

In short, the cost of living is also increasing in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, plus forty emerging markets, which means their costs are also going up. At the same time, they've become more prosperous, which means they've become less reliant on the dollar. The latter will have repercussions on the U.S. I'll let you figure out how.

Lastly, many don't know that this trade war actually started in 2018, with the U.S. and China exchanging tariff increases, until they settled in 2020, with the U.S. agreeing to exempt various Chinese products in exchange for China buying more U.S. goods. On top of that, Biden continued what Trump started, which is why he maintained America First and then adjusted the tariffs on steel products by switching them from China to Japan. In addition, he started the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains many MAGA principles.

The problem, I think, is that individuals connected to Chinese companies were accused of spying, and China retaliated by reneging on Phase Two of the deal with the U.S. That's why the trade war was restarted.