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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

#361
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> non-democratic country Just because a country is a democracy does not mean it will be a reliable trading partner. Democracies can easily swing from free market to protectionist trade policies -- and back. Outsourcing a very large fraction of all manufacturing for half the world to any single country is an incredibly risky idea.

Democracies aren’t beholden to the ego of an authoritarian. Free trade for free countries, and a tyrant tax for authoritarian regimes should be the norm if we want human centered capitalism. https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2023

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

#362

"China is estimated to hold an about 84% share of the global market in neodymium magnets and an over 90% interest in samarium cobalt magnets. Japan, meanwhile, has about 15% of the neodymium magnet market and a less-than-10% share of that for samarium cobalt. If China bans the export of such technologies, it would be difficult for the United States and Europe, which do not traditionally manufacture rare earth magnets…

America has done much of the same for years.

China isn't even allowed to have modern CPU technologies, and such tech is banned for export to China

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

#363

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.

Black Ops 2 video game campaign literally built on microprocessors all coming from China

In Black Ops 2 the campaign is about stopping a latin american drug lord/terrorist who is trying to start war between the US and China to wipe them both out. He is developing some magic chip quantum tech to hack into both the US and China to trigger a war. Activision has taken the Hollywood approach and carefully avoided making China a bad guy.

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

#364
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Everyone wants a bogeyman. It’s great for Nationalism and Politicians who can blame someone else. Strong economic ties are the only way to align interests and prevent destructive wars.

That worked so well for Russia and the West.

it kind of did. Europe saved roughly 1% gdp for 30 years at the cost of 1 invasion that will almost certainly cost less that 30% of a year's gdp to repel.

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

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to be afraid of China to realize that outsourcing a very large fraction of all manufacturing for half the world to a single non-democratic country doesn't serve our interests in the long run.

> outsourcing a very large fraction of all manufacturing for half the world to a single non-democratic country doesn't serve our interests in the long run You do realise that a sizeable chunk of the world's oil and gas are sourced from "non-democratic" countries in the Middle East, yet somehow we leave them alone to openly torture, abuse and murder their citizens? And on top of that they're left alone to operate a ca…

Yeah we should quit doing that too, I don't think anyone but the political elite are in favor of being dependent on middle eastern countries

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

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am less convinced that China is really good at playing the long game, and more convinced that China is subject to many of the same political struggles that we see in the US. It’s just so easy to tap into our fears of China that we want to believe that they’re this smart and ruthless. We look for evidence to validate our feelings. There are deposits of these rare earth minerals elsewhere. There are always more depos…

>There are deposits of these rare earth minerals elsewhere. There are always more deposits, it’s just that they’re untapped until we deplete our cheaper sources. If China withholds its minerals, we will use more expensive sources, but we will still get the minerals. Same thing if you with-hold semiconductors. Somebody for sure is willing to sell general purpose chips to China second hand at a more expensive price. >I…

> Somebody for sure is willing to sell general purpose chips to China second hand at a more expensive price.

The US is stopping people from selling high tech chips to China. Have you not heard of this policy?

I tenat to agree that Xi Jing Ping is distracted with retaining power like all the other democractic polticians are. Instead of left vs rights, its ultra left-ist faction against faction, corruption and profiteering in the CCP is rife. Every day enough figure gets sent to death it would seem after falling out of favour.

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

#368
post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yet somehow we leave them alone to openly torture, abuse and murder their citizens Huh, like maybe "a sizeable chunk of the world's oil and gas are sourced from "non-democratic" countries in the Middle East" is the problem, and the reason those countries get a pass? So like we shouldn't be outsourcing manufacturing, we shouldn't be outsourcing energy production to terrible countries.

If by we you mean the US then we don’t. The US has effectively zero direct dependence on middle eastern oil due to domestic production and transportation costs. Canada is much closer and has a lot of oil. Where it matters is they can impact the global prices and thus what people pay at the pump. Though the actual profits from such spikes in American gas prices end up going to suppliers in America or Canada.

> The US has effectively zero direct dependence on middle eastern oil due to domestic production and transportation costs

For now and whilst those extraction costs are cheaper domestically. The US needs the Saudis as a backstop and for infill of the types of crude oils the North American continent doesn't have access to or is in limited supply.

They're also a handy client state to do the US's dirty work in the Middle East, see Yemen for example. The US also needs the Saudi's and their non-democratic allies to keep buying weapon systems to prop up Lockheed, Boeing et al. You need to look at the bigger picture.

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

#369
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.

From what I understand, it is an affront to their regime. It’s an island of free, prosperous and democratic Chinese people. It’s a repudiation of everything the CCP stands for. In a very real sense, Taiwan is not a separate country, but a unconquered territory from the Civil War, the last bastion of the pre-1949 Republic of China, and a symbol of what could have been for all of China. Sure there are geopolitical reas…

This is a very western view on things.

Chinese people from mainland cares much less about democracy than citizens from western countries. The primary motivation for Chinese people to want reunification is that it's one of the last remaining symbols of colonialism.

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

#370

In a way this is good news. The more China overplays its hand in this undeclared economic war the more likely that Western countries will realize that they are making the exact same mistake with China that they have made with Russia. You can't play nice with dictatorships in the hope that your long term economic interests will be aligned to the point that the other party will be forced to continue to play nice. China…

> You can't play nice with dictatorships in the hope that your long term economic interests will be aligned to the point that the other party will be forced to continue to play nice. This is a false equivalence of democracy = partner. The US has been happy to trade with friendly dictatorships (e.g. Saudi Arabia) and has itself threatened, overthrown, or interefered in democratic and popular governments (e.g. Chile) t…

People on HN mostly just like pretend America is perfect though, never invaded a country, dealt with criminals etc. Only terrible people in Russia and China are capable of this.
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