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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

#421

Post by philipkglass »

mjevans wrote: post #333
jacquesm wrote: post #239

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.

Centralization promotes efficiency, until a problem happens. I can't seem to find anything in news headlines, probably because the event I remember hearing about likely happened before Google's founding (I think it was the 1990s or 1980s?); but at a point in time the plastic used for either all or a lot of ICs was manufactured in one single facility. That plant happened to catch fire and it was a major supply issue.…

You're probably thinking of the 1993 explosion at Sumitomo Chemical Company's plant that made epoxy resin for semiconductors:

"Semiconductor Industry Faces Problems After Resin Plant Explosion"

https://apnews.com/article/8fe2925b68d34d33f19a53e4892c74a2

It caused a significant spike in DRAM prices:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-08-06-930806...

Today's low personal computer prices, particularly those on machines made by smaller companies, are likely soon to shoot up more than $100 per machine because of a panic in the world memory-chip market.

Prices already have doubled for computer owners who want to expand the capacity of their machines to handle memory-hungry new programs based on Macintosh System 7 or on Microsoft Windows or the OS/2 operating system for IBM compatibles, industry officials said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-08-06-930806...

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

#422

Post by rnk »

efitz wrote: post #394
teh_klev wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

If only there were a country in North America that had vast oil reserves, larger than Saudi Arabia’s, just there for the taking if politics and lawfare got out of the way…

Do you mean the us or canada? The oil tar sands in Canada are supposed to be expensive to convert to usable petroleum, also use a lot of water, and are supposed to be worse for co2 production. The us has lots of oil, we can get it out if we need it, more frakking, etc. Mexico is happy to sell us all their oil.

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

#423

Post by lmm »

nonethewiser wrote: post #152
CamperBob2 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do they plan to ship to using their newly-conquered shipping lanes, exactly? They will find that the rest of the civilized world can say "No" to China, just as it has to Russia.

Why wouldnt they, if they could, send the navy to secure Japanese islands they insist are theirs?

Isn't that wholly circular? Annex the islands to allow the navy free passage to annex the islands to...

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

#424

Post by Ekaros »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #115
vkou wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only the US, after all, is allowed to militarize the South China sea.

> the US, after all, is allowed to militarize the South China sea The U.S. doesn’t claim the sea as its sovereign waters. China does. (Which had the totally unpredictable effect of majorly pissing off every one of its maritime neighbours.)

So I take USA has no maritime border? Or no territorial waters? That is new for me, but if you say so.

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

#425

Post by beambot »

waterheater wrote: post #185

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

IIRC, Polymagnets give unique field patterns but do not replicate the overall field strength of neodymium magnets.

A much better alternative is someone like Niron Magnetics, who build nitrogen-doped iron magnets that demonstrate field strengths that are (roughly) equivalent to rare-earths:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34359383

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

#426

Post by throwbadubadu »

jacquesm wrote: post #230

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…

> The more China overplays its hand in this undeclared economic war

This arrogant bigotry hurts, we (not only the US but the collective west) have shown everybody how to play this game, and were also not the first. Further, if a country puts up general taxes or protects it resources against all others's the same isn't it its good right? Hate the word war is used so easily, especially in the US, the term economic war fits more most of the uneffective and also wrong sanctions imo.

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

#427

Post by rnk »

ChatGTP wrote: post #372
ramblenode wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 , dropped a nuclear bomb on a large city of civilians, etc. Only terrible people in Russia and China are capable of this. I like America too, just important to consider a coin has multiple sides.

People have varying opinions here but I see plenty of slagging on america's vast history of problems. We are trying to do better but let's see how we do over the next years - we can do so much better. We did all those things and worse, don't forget genocide against native americans, half the country is in denial that slavery and racism were terrible things that still impact us today. And on it goes.

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

#428

Post by lmm »

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #158
WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were him, I'd prefer the status quo. Invading Taiwan is not a 100% success guarantee and surely Xi doesn't want to end up like Putin in Ukraine. Even a (military) success would threaten his rule, simply by the economical consequences. That's a lot of risks for very little rewards. But who knows ... we can just hope for the sake of all of us, that the Chinese have better intelligence and better risk assessment th…

The Chinese government does, at present, strongly favor the status quo. However, it's becoming increasingly clear that the US is shifting away from the One China policy. That shift is deeply alarming the Chinese government. There doesn't seem to be anyone in American politics who is capable of pressing the breaks, slowing down the drive towards confrontation, and reengaging in real diplomacy with China. In the end, t…

> However, it's becoming increasingly clear that the US is shifting away from the One China policy. That shift is deeply alarming the Chinese government. There doesn't seem to be anyone in American politics who is capable of pressing the breaks, slowing down the drive towards confrontation, and reengaging in real diplomacy with China.

Funny, from this side it looks like the opposite: the US is shifting towards greater recognition of Taiwan because China amped up its rhetoric about reunification.

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

#429

Post by lmm »

akimball wrote: post #162
HDThoreaun wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is worried about being blockaded, which is a large threat due to their reliance on middle eastern oil. The status quo makes it relatively easy for the American navy to completely encircle their shores, but without Taiwan that strategy breaks down.

Not really. You just blockade Taiwan. Move the circle out a little bit. Moreover, attacking Taiwan guarantees that a blockade will occur. Besides which, Taiwan probably has nukes inside the PRC. If not they are dumber than dirt.

> You just blockade Taiwan.

"Blockade Taiwan" where? The Chinese fleet currently have to pass close to land to go anywhere outside their own seas, but from Taiwan it's clear blue water all the way to Hawaii.

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

#430

Post by rnk »

zapdrive wrote: post #342
lakomen wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If China is a dictatorship, what's the US? Gangster Oligarchy?

With the unprecedented indictment and arrest of an ex-president on trumped up and statutorily expired charges, how far is the US from a dictatorship? We already know about the rampant mass censorship, thanks to Twitter files expose, militarisation of police and accumulation of all wealth by a few corporates. The only thing left for a clear path towards dictatorship was persecution of political opponents.

I haven't heard any republicans upset about the indictment claim that Trump would never do such a thing as bribe someone to keep quiet and then file deliberately misleading tax reports, and lie on his taxes. Everyone, even his supporters thinks he does things like that. So mull that over. They are just mad it was brought to a court of law.

I do wish the more serious charges had been filed first. The reason it was unprecedented was because previous presidents hadn't committed crimes like that, en mass, at scale, and then on top of all the other things organized a rebellion against the next president's election.

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