The US has hit China where it hurts by going after its telecom champion Huawei, but Beijing's control of the global supply of rare earths used in smartphones and electric cars gives it a powerful weapon in their escalating tech war.
A seemingly routine visit by President Xi Jinping to a Chinese rare earths company this week is being widely read as an obvious threat that Beijing is standing ready for action.
...
However, analysts say China appears apprehensive to target the minerals just yet, possibly fearful of shooting itself in the foot by hastening a global search for alternative supplies of the commodities.
Better buy your new devices now...
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday May 23 2019, @12:46AM (1 child)
Rare earths trade dispute [wikipedia.org]
China can’t control the market in rare earth elements because they aren’t all that rare [theverge.com]
China's Rare Earth Elements Industry: What Can the West Learn? [researchgate.net]
Surprise!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by physicsmajor on Thursday May 23 2019, @05:55AM
Yeah this was my reaction. My understanding is that the US has sources for all of these, but basically the mines closed down because prices from abroad were too cheap to be competitive. Well guess what: China starts this sort of game, and there's a ceiling on how far the prices can go before we just reopen the mines. And it isn't all that high.