WAR WITH RED CHINA BUT NOT NARCOMEX? HASN'T MEXICO ALREADY INVADED? WELL, WE KNOW WHICH SIDE SEN DIANNE FEINSTEIN AND THE BIDEN CRIME CLAN WILL BE ON! - Is War with China Inevitable? The CCP will do whatever it takes.

 

Report: China May Soon Ban Exports of Rare-Earth Magnet Tech to Weaken U.S., Japan

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AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

FRANCES MARTEL

6 Apr 2023197

6:16

The Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday that the government of China is considering banning the export of technology used to create rare-earth fueled high-performance magnets, often used in electric vehicles and other advanced technology.

The report did not cite any sources. Kyodo News, another Japanese outlet, followed with its own report signaling the same potential prohibition from Beijing, claiming that the ban was present in a “proposed revision to its [China’s] export control measures.” Both outlets reported that the potential export ban stemmed from the Communist Party process of updating the nation’s export control list, untouched since 2020.

The news follows growing tensions between China and some of the most influential countries on the rare-earth technology supply chain: America, Japan, and the Netherlands. Japan added 23 items to its export control list last week, most of them materials or technology used to make semiconductors, which often require rare-earth minerals and are pivotal for electric vehicles and other “green” energy. The Japanese move followed a similar one out of the Netherlands that Washington urged the countries to take.

“The U.S. in October imposed sweeping export restrictions on shipments of American chipmaking tools to China, but for the restrictions to be effective it needs other key suppliers in the Netherlands and Japan, who produce key chipmaking technology, to agree,” Reuters reported in March.

China filed a formal complaint over Japan’s moves before the World Trade Organization (WTO) this week, adding to an already existing complaint against the United States.

According to Nikkei, the items on the table for a potential export ban in China include “technology to process and refine rare-earth elements.”

“There are also proposed provisions that would prohibit or limit exports of alloy tech for making high-performance magnets derived from rare earths,” the report continued. “In all, there are 43 amendments or additions in the draft list first announced in December by the commerce and technology ministries.”

The magnets in question are required for electric vehicles. Some of the technology potentially affected by the ban also powers smartphones and “green” energy technology such as wind turbines. Rare-earth minerals also go into the production of computers, fiber optics, and electric generators.

The magnets affected by such a ban are a priority for the Japanese economy, a leader in manufacturing them. Nikkei noted that Japan makes the magnets “while the U.S. produces products that use the magnets.” Japan’s magnet production increased significantly after China banned the export of rare-earth minerals to Japan in 2010, punishing Japan for rejecting China’s claims to Japanese territory in the East China Sea — and leaving Japan to find another corner of the rare-earth supply chain to prosper in.

Japan and China have long maintained an acrimonious relationship, first in response to Japan’s atrocities in China during World War II and, more recently, the result of Japan’s opposition to Chinese communist imperialism in the region. Beijing nonetheless welcomed Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimata last weekend to meet with his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, and several other high-ranking officials.

In his meeting with Hayashi, Qin emphasized China’s stern condemnation of Japan’s export controls on semiconductor technology.

“Japan has suffered that pain, and should not help a villain do evil. The containment will only further stimulate China’s determination to become self-reliant,” Qin said, referring to America. The Chinese diplomat accused Washington of similarly “bullying” China with policies to aid American industry in competing with Japanese semiconductor manufacturers.

Following their meeting, the Chinese Foreign Ministry again condemned Japan’s moves, failing to mention Hayashi’s visit during its regular press briefing the Monday after.

“China has made serious démarches to the Japanese side at various levels to express our strong discontent and grave concerns,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said. “The potential export control targeting China will not only affect the industrial and supply chains of semiconductors in the region and the wider world, and will also hurt Japanese companies.”

The Chinese state newspaper Global Times revealed on Wednesday that China had taken a further step in opposing the Japanese moves by filing a lawsuit against Japan at the WTO. The semiconductor export controls, the Chinese Commerce Ministry insisted, were a violation of the WTO’s rules.

“We hope that Japan will listen to reasonable voices at home, correct its wrong practices in a timely manner, promote the healthy development of economic and trade relations between the two countries, and work with all parties to maintain the stability of the global semiconductor industrial supply chain,” a Commerce Ministry spokesperson said, confirming the lawsuit.

The Commerce Ministry noted that China “is the world’s largest semiconductor market and the largest export destination of Japan’s semiconductor manufacturing equipment.”

Nikkei noted on Thursday that China is also dominant in rare-earth metal production, currently the source of 70 percent of the world’s rare-earth supply. A decade ago, however, China controlled 90 percent of the supply, a sign that American, Japanese, Australian, and other efforts to create a multipolar market for the minerals have had some effect.

The economic publication Quartz reported on Wednesday that the decline in China’s influence, though still leaving it in control of most rare-earth materials, has “wrongfooted” the Chinese government.

China has not adapted to the current new global rare earth competition pattern,” Quartz quoted Dai Tao, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, as writing.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

Is War with China Inevitable?

The CCP will do whatever it takes.

April 7, 2023 by Mark Lewis 7 Comments

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From August, 2011 through July, 2015, I worked as a history instructor for the Liaoning Normal University/Missouri State University (LNU/MSU) College of International Business in Dalian, Liaoning, China.  This is a joint effort between the two schools to, presumably, foster better relations between America and China, and provide Chinese students an American business education.  The students, nearly all Chinese, spend two years at LNU/MSU improving their English skills, and then the last two years, they transfer to Missouri State in Springfield, or some other western college of their choice, to finish their degrees.  Practically, it is an excellent program for Chinese students.

As noted, for five years, I taught American history (the curriculum was set by MSU) to eager college freshmen.  Honestly, and humbly, I was doing an outstanding work.  Not only was I helping the students at LNU/MSU, but I had met many, many other Chinese students and people in Dalian, and was enjoying great success as a teacher of history and English.  After five years in China, a foreigner only begins learning about China in ways that can assist their teaching.  I fully intended to continue my work there.  But, in 2015, with typical Chinese arbitrary tyranny, the government told me it was time to go.  They gave me no substantive reason, just “go.”  MSU didn’t want me to leave, nor did LNU. Some students even tearfully begged the Chinese dean to let me stay.  But Chinese colleges don’t make those decisions, oppressive bureaucrats do, and, as the visa expert (Chinese lady) at LNU/MSU told me, “the government doesn’t care if you are the best teacher in China.”  So, I was gone.

Then I did a stupid thing.  Within two years, I returned to China, this time teaching at a university in Zhengzhou, Henan province.  Two and a half excellent years ensued, helping the students, and many other people in that city.  I even served for a time as the Director of Teaching Affairs for the university’s special English program.  No matter.  At the end of the fall semester 2019, I was told my contract would not be renewed and I would have to leave.  Covid hit hard the next month, and subsequent events are irrelevant to this column. But not to a future one.

What I am attempting to convey here are two concrete examples of how the Leftist, communist Chinese government does not care one iota about the well-being of its people—or anybody else.  As the lady in Dalian said, I could have been the best teacher in China, but they would still run me off because that is what totalitarians do.  They want power, arbitrarily enforced, and that is all they care about. The CCP has one goal in mind: domination of as much of this globe as possible, and what it takes, or how many people they hurt or kill in the process, is utterly irrelevant to them.  Power is the only thing Leftists believe in.

And Leftism is Leftism is Leftism–everywhere.  Marxism (Leftist philosophy) is a world-wide, globalist ideology, not a national one.  And the Democratic Party, composed almost entirely of Marxist/Leftists now, has totally swallowed this globalist ideology (remember “citizen of the world” Obama?).  They are trying to do in America what the CCP has done in China—complete domination. The Democrats care no more about the American people than the CCP cares about the Chinese people.  I saw it in China for ten years, and now I am seeing the exact same thing happening in America.  What does it take to have total control? That is all that matters.

The Chinese communists had to solidify their hold, and make China wealthy, before they set out on their Marxist world mission.  The Democrats are just in the beginning stages of dominating America.  If these Marxists ever become as ascendent in the United States as the CCP is in China, it will be interesting to see where such will lead them.  Will they confront, or join, China? I can tell you what China would do.  China would crush them because the Democrats are stupidly naïve.

Glenn Beck recently said that he believes America and China will be at war by 2025.  General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is a little more cautious, but also asserted, “There’s a lot of rhetoric in China…that could create the perception that war is right around the corner.”  Because of his caving to woke ideology in the military, Milley has lost all credibility with patriotic Americans. But he still has access to intelligence that few others possess.  Whether he has a solid understanding of China and Marxist doctrine is problematic, however.

I don’t know whether there will be a war between America and China or not.  I related some of my experiences in China to inform readers of some insights I have into that nation.  Chinese leaders have a reputation—not always deserved—of patience.  I have trouble believing Xi Jinping would risk a war with America in 2025 if he believes that, eventually, China will become the dominant world power without it.  That is the way the Chinese have usuallyoperated—in effect, good things come to those who wait, scheme, lie, and steal.

Xi can certainly see that America, under Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, is committing national suicide, destroying itself from within.  Why not just let it happen?  If Biden (or a Democrat) is elected next year, the suicidal process will only accelerate.  Napoleon said something to the effect of never interfere with your enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself.  I can’t see why China would WANT to go to war with America any time soon.

But, one more thing I know about China—they are an inscrutable people, impossible to predict. Except that the CCP will do whatever it perceives is in ITS best interest, regardless of any cost to China’s people or humanity.  That much I know for sure. I lived that.

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