China restricts exports of two metals that the EU considers of 'strategic' importance
China restricts exports of two metals that the EU considers of 'strategic' importance
China has imposed restrictions on the exports of gallium and germanium, ratcheting up trade tensions with Western allies. #EuropeNews
China vs rest of world… bring it on
You mean China vs the crumbling western empire that accounts for around 20% of the world's population and doesn't actually produce much of anything? 😂
China seems incapable of reading the room/learning from recent geopolitical events. There is no turning back once economies are decoupled and bridges are burnt. It's almost as if Xi is high on his own propaganda and forgot he has to rely on the world economy to get his fiefdom beyond the middle income trap and through the crises (demographic, environmental, economic) to come. If Europeans are willing to pay double their heating bill so not to rely on Russian gas, there's no reason not to consider alternative producers of rare earth, which are literally everywhere.
If Europeans are willing to pay double their heating bill
We're not willing, we're being forced to by our scummy governments. They never asked us for our opinion.
I was surprised by how overwhelmingly positive support was, I mean, you don't need too much brain to understand the geopolitical context and motivation behind it. What's left of your economy, and by extend, job, lifestyle, if a single bad-faith actor can put your factory out of business? Or threatens to let you freeze to death in the middle of the winter?
It was fun to see even the far left/right parties over here (who have open ties and funding from Russia) refuse to contest that. Complaints I've seen were within the "I get my facts from Facebook" crowds, who also happen to be incapable of understanding their energy bills and are oblivious to the subsidized/capped prices their governments applied to them (often to a greater extent due to their unfavorable financial situation, how ironic).
I don't know which category that leaves you.
In the long term the west will have no choice but to start creating their own supply chains, however that's going to take many years to do. Meanwhile, China already has independent end-to-end supply chains and that means Chinese companies will have a huge advantage producing tech products using these rare metals giving China a huge market advantage.