SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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...
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Fears Rise China Could Weaponise Rare Earths In US Tech War
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 26 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
There's no such thing as an original sin.
-- Elvis Costello
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @02:50PM
> Maybe, one day, the US will actually learn recycling.
A recent story (radio, NPR or BBC, I've forgotten) looked at electronics recycling outside the USA. Seems that organized crime is now involved and they start by burning/melting whole circuit boards down, damn any foul gasses or poisons that some out of the fire. This is done in rural areas where the mob can easily buy off local law and pollution enforcement. When they have all the metals & glasses, and the organics are burned off, they have something with higher gold content than typical gold ore, and probably other valuable material at useful concentrations.
We can do the same things in USA, but doing it responsibly, with minimal pollution, makes it currently not cost effective relative to the international competition.