What re-engagement is the USA talking about when Biden
is putting in place more restrictions on USA investments in China,
targeting sensitive sectors of technology, thereby indicating that it is
upping sanctions against China in the technology sector again, hyping
on 'national security issues'.
Suffice to say, China should
also respond to that tit by retaliating with a tat, by selling off its
total Treasury holdings, not to talk about being persuaded to buy more,
because it is a 'national security issue' for China, clear and
unambiguous. But don't hold your breath, waiting for an immediate
response, because China needs time to calibrate its retaliation where it
will hurt most when that happens.
What Biden is doing by
continuously escalating the tech war, is basically to shore up his
support for his re-election in 2024. What else can he do as this is the
only sector that the USA has an advantage against China? The Chips war
is unravelling, as otherwise why is there a need to go further, knowing
that China will retaliate. The fallout from Intel's warning about
scrapping plans to build the biggest chip foundry in the USA took a hit
on Biden's support base, and he is desperate to find other rhetorics to
shore up his standing. The question is - is it going to hit China hard,
or going to backfire as always?
Take those sanctions against
Russia for example, which were gloated to be all about trying to cut off
any and all financial support for Russia's Ukraine War funding. The USA
itself, meanwhile, under the surface, still buying 15% of its uranium
requirements from Russia, deviously and discreetly supporting Russia to
the tune of US$1 billion a year, and obviously sabotaging, in no
uncertain terms, the sanctions that other countries are foolishly trying
to enforce and suffering for it.
On another recent topic,
Mongolia is reported to be gifting 31 million tons of rare earth to the
USA to extract. Now, first question is who is going to invest in
Mongolia to extract those ores? Next question is who is going to set up
expensive facilities in Mongolia to refine those ores? Even the USA
needs China to refine rare earth ores for them, and China is not that
foolish to do it for Mongolia.
Rare earths are actually not rare
and can be found everywhere around the world. Australia and India are
among the top eight countries with substantial reserves, which could be
more easily secured than in such a place as Mongolia. This announcement
is more like making a mountain out of a molehill, without taking into
account the long journey those ores have to take to become usable final
products. Moreover the infrastructures like roads, ports and rails are
not ideal for such an activity in Mongolia.
And let me once again
put it in perspective about countries investing in rare earth refining
facilities. They can pour all their fortunes into such ventures, but
there is always the threat that all those investments could end up in
smoke, as and when China chooses to flood the market with cheaper
Gallium and Germanium to kill them off. The fact that China controls so
much rare earth reserves, and is simultaneously controlling 60% of
global refining facilities, there is a lot that China can do that others
do not have the luxury of doing.
Anonymous
Good morning All
ReplyDeleteMangoes aka Mongolia is pulling a fast one on the dumb Americunts.
They are land locked between Russia and China even without a port for shipments.
Rare Earth are homogenous bulky cargo just like bauxite and cannnot go by air and it will defeat economy of scale and costs.
Also, the UAssA also cannot fly their even bulk capacity Military Planes to have the cargo as they needed permissions to fly over China and Russia.
Be shot down before reaching the Mangoes.
Think China will allow their nearest Tanjin Port for them to ship to the UAssA?
Also want to set up plants to purify and extract the real stuff so easy meh?
Americunts thru years of robberies and living off the Rest of the World had lost their ability to think and work lah.
Took years to master the art.
Good that China restricted these exports as they the Barbarians will have less manufacturing of Murderous Arsenals to kill the coloured peoples.
Mongolia is just having some organisms in provoking China as they had a axe to grind with China for NOT able to conquer them in the past.
Great Wall of China will locked them in their own land hunting with their eagles and hawks.
This news of Mongolia gifting USA 31 million tons of rare earth is a joke. It is just as good as saying, we have so much desert sand, we can give it to you. For what purpose are those dirt without the refining facilities? Refining rare earth facilities are not that easy to set up, and are expensive ventures, causes pollution and environmental issues, which even Malaysia knows, but stupidly allowed Lynas of Australia to set up processing plants in (I believe somewhere in Kuantan) and releasing radioactive waste around the area.
ReplyDeleteHow smart are the Whites, shifting all things that they do not want to do, due to hazardous issues, and shifting them to poor countries. Africa suffered the worst of those polluting issues, with waste being dumped on to the continent on the pretext of helping them by providing them waste to sustain their recycling businesses. China and South East Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia were also their waste dumping grounds at one time, but have now wisen up and refused to allow that.
The USA also shifted most of its polluting manufacturing businesses to China to take advantage of the low wages and huge market, and yet think it morally right to demonise China repeatedly for pollution issues, while they enjoyed the cheap goods and the good life for decades.
The USA, even if it manages to extract those Mongolia ores and transport them at huge expense, needs to find processing facilities, either building them or asking countries like Australia's Lynas to help. In the end, the question is still, will it be competitive enough against China? The whole idea is actually to extract Gallium, which is in short supply following the restrictions placed by China over its export. Gallium, which does not exists by itself, is a by product of mainly the processing of aluminium ores, and needs huge investments, which again China is the world's biggest producer at 55%.
Whichever way we look at it, China fears little about little molehills spouting up to engulf big mountains. China will overwhelm those molehills when it thinks fit, by flooding the market or withholding its supply.
Right Anon 9.53
ReplyDeleteEast Malaysia Kuantan where also they mined Bauxite.
Wow dirty cargo all became RedMen covered with their polluting dirts and dusts.
Cannot now remember that small port where they loaded the bauxite.
Cheers
Oh ya Dungun that's the port.
ReplyDeleteLoaded into barges.
Lots of raw crispy keropok.
Cheers
Getting those ores from Mongolia out for processing is not feasible by airlifting such heavy stuff. The USA, South Korea and Mongolia were hoping against hope of leasing an area of Tianjin Port to do that, which the Chinese are not that stupid to allow. Besides having radioactive issues, it is going to interfere with the port operation. Why help the enemy when it is doing so much harm to China?
ReplyDeleteActually this plan of Mongolia to extract rare earth had been talked about for years, without any solution as to how those ores can be transported. That problem is still unresolved. It may have been solvable ten years ago, when the USA and China were still relatively tolerant of each other. Not today. The distrust is complete.