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China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

japannews.yomiuri.co.jp

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Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#201

Post by unaindz »

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #177
verdverm wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given it has been so long and they are now so different, why is reunification even necessary at this point? (Other than the CCP wants to control Taiwan based on historical lines) Why is the CCP so intent on controlling the land of another country? Most people practically consider Taiwan independent, even if the "agreements" around it say something else. They have their own government, flag, military, trade agreements…

> Why is the CCP so intent on controlling the land of another country? The way you frame the question already suggests that you're not interested in why China (not just the CCP - this is a broad sentiment inside China) sees things the way it does. Taiwan is not seen as "another country" in China. It's seen as a Chinese province that is temporarily separated from China due to the civil war. This was also the view of s…

> So if both China and Taiwan wanted and want to be united why don't they?

I was gonna ask that but researched a little bit of history first.

So the CCP won the civil war against the government at the time, the PRC, which retreated to Taiwan. What I didn't get is that both governments consider China to include the Taiwan territory, they just don't agree on which is the legitimate government. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

On my foreigner opinion though is too late for uniting china like that because when you split the population for a long enough time the culture will evolve in a different way between those parts.

Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#202

Post by thrashh »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #159
nirav72 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Nobody believed Russia would actually invade Ukraine Who is 'Nobody' in this context? Because most analysis on this since Russia took Crimea in 2014 have predicated that Russia would make further attempts at capturing Ukrainian territory. Even the U.S defense establishment knew this and were preparing the Ukrainians for since 2015.

Excuse my hyperbole. The better term would be “divided”. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/qa-what-is-risk-war-bet... https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/3/how-real-is-the-thr... vs. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/01/us-warns-russi... for example.

They’re just random news sites you’re linking though. They’re not even political news magazines.

News editors don’t enact policy. Who cares what they thinks.

Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#203

Post by nonethewiser »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #32
moose_man wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's pretty clear that this was a top down effort to control the global market, a concerted effort by the state. https://www.china-briefing.com/news/china-merges-three-rare-...

No, not at all. It is clear to you because you aren't looking at the entire history. But to anyone who has been in China for awhile, it is obvious that it happened overtime and wasn't intended. You are assuming China is an authoritarian country where state control is absolute, but in reality, China is a huge country where there are lots people making even if that means destroying the environment while the government…

China does have an authoritarian government. And they literally own all the land. You can’t just extract rare earth metals from China without the CCPs blessing.

Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#204

Post by tomcam »

decafninja wrote: post #123
sohex wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does China actually stand to gain by invading Taiwan? Any kind of real analysis based in anything other than nationalistic fervor or fear mongering seems to indicate that they're better served by the status quo.

Face. As an East Asian myself, the amount of stupidity that goes on in all of the East Asian countries at all levels because of “face” is astounding. Call it “honor” or “nationalism” or “XXX Pride” - ultimately all the same thing.

This is the answer. It is so simple and yet so alien to the west that it simply doesn’t register in most people’s minds.

Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#205

Post by 01100011 »

jmclnx wrote: post #7

I read "Rare Earths" are nor really rare. But the article did say extracting these elements cheaply causes a lot of environmental damage, which as we know, China is perfectly fine with. I also read the US is close to opening a "mining" site for Rear Earths, but not sure where or for what elements.

I think another issue is that a lot of the various rare earths(maybe just the lanthanides?) are chemically similar and thus very difficult to isolate. In the end, a lot of this just boils down to establishing the production networks which takes time and a lot of money.

Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#206

Post by nobodyandproud »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #195
35208654 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been a popular opinion for a very long time. It even supports a plot point in the movie The Departed (2006): Oliver Queenan : Microprocessors. Billy Costigan : Micro what? Oliver Queenan : Microprocessors. We'll probably be at war with the Chinese in 20-odd years and Costello is selling them military technology. Microprocessors, chips, computer parts. Anybody says anything about anything like that you let us…

This has been a trope in scifi since years. I remember the original Black Ops 2 video game campaign literally built on microprocessors all coming from China.

I believe this was also a plot point of the (newer) Outer Limits, with drugged up soldiers believing each other to be hostile aliens.

Without the USSR, the US didn’t have any other power to serve as a credible enemy.

I’m certainly not some insightful prophet: I can’t discount SF playing its part in influencing me; but it also makes sense in the long term (Carthage and Rome; Greece Polis’ and Persia…).

Headbutting is inevitable and China clearly was getting stronger even in the 1990s.

Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#207

Post by nyokodo »

waterheater wrote: post #185

That's okay. The US has polymagnets, which are a paradigm shift in magnetics. https://www.polymagnet.com/

That's super cool. But these have been around for years, has the paradigm really shifted so as to totally replace all Chinese magnet manufacturing?

Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#208

Post by another_story »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #146
nonethewiser wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are we exactly? Your prediction has not been proven correct. Even as much as things are escalating, war does not appear imminent nor certain.

> Where are we exactly? Your prediction has not been proven correct. Even as much as things are escalating, war does not appear imminent nor certain. We’re much closer than we were 20 years ago. Nobody believed Russia would actually invade Ukraine; nor that Xi would be foolish enough to scare away Taiwan by muscling in on Hong Kong. Unless the CCP forces Xi out, their hardliners and the middle-kingdom mindset have al…

I wouldn't say any actions are idncidcating we're closer. There have been numerous conflicts across the strait in the last half century. If the KMT takes control of the presidency in the next election it'll calm down a lot.

Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#209

Post by nonethewiser »

delfinom wrote: post #100
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> however I think that the Chinese government is totally capable of acting in a centralized way on a fixed target like mining Spend a couple weeks in China's hinterland and I'm sure that your opinion would change very quickly. There are good reasons semiconductors are concentrated in Beijing/Shanghai, but anything mining or natural resource related are going to be messy because China is a huge country and local gover…

Yea people literally treat China as a hivemind. The same goes for other countries too. It's absolutely bizarre and often some sort of weird US centric mindset. Part of it I even blame on US media, somehow, whenever there's something to discuss about in another country, even if it's some research breakthrough by a single individual presenting his work at a elementary school instead its "COUNTRY X CURES CANCER"

Are you saying the US is more centrally controlled than China? It seems that way but I don’t think that holds up.

The US states convened and created a constitution which granted a few explicit powers to the federal government and left everything else to the states. These rules cannot be changed by the federal government- only the states.

Whereas in China, a single party wrote the constitution, which enshrines power in themselves, and can be changed by this party whenever they want.

Re: China plans to ban exports of rare earth magnet tech

#210

Post by Animats »

I'm trying to find out if the rare earth extraction plant that MP Minerals was building in Alliance, TX actually got built.[1] Google and Bing pictures are from 2021 and show a vacant lot. If anyone is near there, please go to the corner of Independence and Victory and see how the construction is going.

PR: "MP Materials broke ground for its magnet factory at Alliance last April, and completed the building’s shell in September. ... The company plans to start delivering alloy from the Fort Worth plant to General Motors late this year, and magnets in 2025, MP Materials founder James Litinsky said in an annual profit report meeting."

MP Minerals already has the largest rare earth mine in the US, at Mountain Pass, CA. That went bankrupt in 2015 because of low-priced competition from China. They finally got a process working that didn't cause major pollution problems.

That mine has been back in action since 2018. They only do initial separation at the mine; the ore is shipped to China for further processing until the US plant gets going.

China had a near-monopoly in rare-earths processing. Had. About six weeks ago, MP Minerals made a deal with Sumitomo in Japan to provide ore for to be processed into rare earths in Japan.[3][4]

There's also some company called US Rare Earths, with a mine in Colorado. Their PR shows lots of funding and announcing, not so much manufacturing and shipping.

China has been making rare-earth metal threats for years. The main result is that China's share of rare earth mining has dropped from 80% to about 55% as the US and Australia ramp up.[2] Also that the industry has become very profitable. MP Minerals profit more than doubled last year. 10-20 years ago, everybody in this space was going bust.

[1] https://mpmaterials.com/articles/mp-materials-begins-constru...

[2] https://www.mining-technology.com/features/australia-rare-ea...

[3] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/02/22/business/us-rar...

[4] https://www.pm-review.com/mp-materials-and-sumitomo-corporat...

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