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China Just Turned Off U.S. Supplies Of Minerals Critical For Defense & Cleantech (cleantechnica.com)

submitted 4 months ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[-] MrAlternateTape@lemm.ee 179 points 3 months ago

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

The US have a shitstorm coming. That's what you get when you let a toddler play with the control knobs of the country.

Another very interesting point is how China made themselves so powerful. Anything with electronics needs some sort of resource from China. China is a very big and powerful player.

We should wonder if we want t be this dependant on one country for all our tech needs. I think the answer is no....

[-] ansiz@lemmy.world 73 points 3 months ago

This is all just Japan from the 80s all over again. There are a bunch of movies from the period with Japan as the bogeyman. The peak probably being the backstory of Die Hard.

The key difference this time is the USA was paying for Japan's defense, had a massive military base, etc. China doesn't have that problem, so they can counter American demands with their own demands.

Interestingly, look at interviews with Trump from the 80s, he'll talk about Japan almost with the same language that he uses for China now. The most famous was probably an appearance of Trump on Oprah.

[-] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 months ago

It's always amazing to see the media of the 80s just shitting on Japan. "Cheap mass market products that never work." "They're going to take all the American jobs."

In Back to the Future 2, McFly is seen as weak for having a job with a Japanese boss and getting fired for it.

Cyberpunk has Japanese decorations and cosmetics because it was invented when Japan was the yellow peril.

At the same time, Japanese-Americans were asking for reparations from the internment camps, charged with the crime of being Japanese and having all their assets sold off without any consent.

Japan was able to help get a start on the next generation of writers with the mass production of anime into Western audiences. Now if someone doesn't watch anime it's seen as weird.

Right now China is that "other" nation. I wonder if in 30 more years we'll look back at it and go "What the fuck were we smoking in hating people we never even had contact with? No Chinese person ever deported me. No Chinese person ever called me slurs."

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[-] jaxxed@lemmy.ml 61 points 3 months ago

What's funnier is that the Americans could have dropped Chinese raw materials if they had built a collaboration before tariffing China, but the current Government have only one tactic: try to bully everyone at once. They really did make their own mess.

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[-] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 months ago

We should wonder if we want t be this dependant on one country for all our tech needs. I think the answer is no…

It's also by far the biggest market for those materials, and a massive scale industry there. The IRA did incentivize local supply chains for many materials, but the high ROI scarcity model in US, had many announced projects cancelled, and new administration's love for fossil fuels and funding sources for tax cuts for the rich, threaten other projects. The reason projects were cancelled is that price, even after subsidy, would be horribly uncompetitive relative to China, and includes further uncompetitive processing industry requirements, that aren't usually the same expertise as a mining operation.

trade dependence is bad

is something you can say only when global peace is impossible, but also when your country is the one that fully decides global peace or war. War is not a path for shared prosperity. Trade dependence can be very prosperous (PPP GDP is far more important measure than nominal). Markets usually function because sellers are not forced to hate buyers, instead of trying to usually be their friend.

Far crazier than OP high tech industry suicide, is food and apparel. 1930s Smoot-Harley tariffs didn't just amplify great depression, they directly led to global famine. Farming bankruptcies and low global trade means planting less, if surplus can't be sold anywhere. No one will import avocados or apparel this week, and that has a bigger short term impact on lives.

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[-] tyfpgg@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago

Yeah.. I read yesterday they are testing flying cars to help with reducing commute times. Wow... flying cars... dreams from my childhood that sadly we didn't make come true, but China is testing theirs.

(re-post because strangely, my first post showed up twice, as in duplicates, then I deleted it, and they both deleted. maybe my cache or lemm.ee issue. shrug)

[-] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 months ago

Don't be fooled too hard by propaganda though. We also got tests of flying cars in other countries, it was a beloved subvention target of some german politicans as well… but it's just not economically viable, and for the filthy rich it isn't in any way better than a helicopter for now. They also said some nonsense about having "a train that can go anywhere" which was just a fucking bendy bus, and their infrastructure keeps falling apart due to no or absurdly bad quality control (which other countries can also do very well)… so yeah, China is just stupid in different ways. To put it mildly.

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[-] sundrei@lemmy.sdf.org 65 points 4 months ago

Looks like coal's back on the menu, boys! (Ugh.)

[-] IHeartBadCode@fedia.io 53 points 4 months ago

Ha ha, but for real. They'll just turn people's power off, tell them to ration, and/or jack the price per kWh to 500% what it was.

Team Orange let's no good calamity go to waste. Everything is potential profit if you have no moral compass.

[-] nodiratime@lemmy.world 28 points 4 months ago

It's interesting to see that the circle of profiteers gets smaller and smaller each iteration, since everybody else is losing footing in the process.

[-] Alloi@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

less competition

[-] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 23 points 4 months ago

capitalism as predicted by Jack Lennon in the book that inspired 1984

The Iron Heel

[-] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Heel

The main premise of the book is the rise of a socialist mass movement in the United States – strong enough to have a real chance of winning national elections, getting to power, and implementing a radical socialist regime. Conservatives feel alarmed and threatened by this prospect, to the point of seizing power and establishing a brutal dictatorship in order to avert it.

It also inspired the national socialist party of Germany to "redefine socialism" as fascist oligarchism.

[-] nyan@lemmy.cafe 64 points 3 months ago

There are alternative sources for these . . . but the US has pissed all of those countries off too.

[-] IllNess@infosec.pub 42 points 3 months ago

Don't worry. Russia is willing to work with Trump and Trump can say that Russia is its only ally.

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[-] cupcakezealot 44 points 3 months ago

US is just lucky they didn't start selling off and unloading US debt

[-] WalnutLum@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 months ago

According to the Trump that's exactly what he wants, countries to sell off the bonds they have in exchange for super long term bonds that defer interest for like 100 years.

[-] Wiz@midwest.social 11 points 3 months ago

Bold optimism that the USA will last 100 of any time unit.

[-] ubergeek@lemmy.today 4 points 3 months ago

That's not how it works, though? But alas... our white house isn't filled with our best, but rapists and criminals.

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[-] huppakee@lemm.ee 37 points 3 months ago

Luckily Europe is one step ahead:

Access to clean energy and rare earths is critical for the EU as it seeks to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and boost its autonomy in strategic sectors.

But sizeable shares of the global mining, processing and recycling of some of the critical raw materials, like lithium, that are indispensable to the development of renewable energy, everyday items as well as defence systems, are controlled by China, from which the EU wants to 'decouple' due to its aggressive and protectionist trade and foreign policy practices.

Central Asia holds large deposits, including 38.6% of the world's manganese ore, 30.07% of chromium, 20% of lead, 12.6% of zinc, and 8.7% of titanium.

"These raw materials are the lifeblood of the future global economy. Yet they are also a honeypot for global players. Some are only interested in exploiting and extracting," von der Leyen told Central Asian leaders.

"Europe's offer is different. We also want to be your partners in developing your local industries. The added value has to be local. Our track record speaks for itself," she added.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/04/04/eu-seals-new-central-asia-partnership-deal-as-debut-samarkand-summit-ends

[-] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 months ago

Europe also tries their best to improve the situations in the other mines (some are so awful they're basically off-limit for western companies because of child slavery and such stuff) and find new patches for example in Scandinavia or middle- and south America which could then be extracted with the respective countries.

Brussel does a lot of bullshit, sometimes phenomenally so (in the end it's just politics as well), but in this case they really seem to try.

[-] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 34 points 3 months ago

What would work great is no tariffs, no passports, no visas, no countries, no religion too

[-] harmsy@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Imagine all the people living for today!

[-] samus12345@lemm.ee 10 points 3 months ago

It's difficult if you try. But worth it.

[-] Beero@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Can you imagine, living for today?

[-] Grass@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago

well I am tired of living for yesterday...

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[-] OozingPositron@feddit.cl 6 points 3 months ago

And no borders?

[-] MangoCats@feddit.it 4 points 3 months ago

Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago

Just wait until the Chinese cut off basic industrial inputs like chemicals, screws, nails, electronic parts.

[-] Snowclone@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago

But have we learned from our mistakes? No.

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[-] PrivateNoob@sopuli.xyz 15 points 4 months ago

There is just too much political post in this channel. Where is the tech?

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 39 points 3 months ago

Where is the tech?

We won't have any

[-] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 39 points 3 months ago

Where is the tech?

In China.

[-] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 33 points 3 months ago

“Let’s not make this political”… the calling card of the embarrassed conservative.

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[-] Mearuu@kbin.melroy.org 7 points 4 months ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/

[-] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 months ago

This is a tech/manufacturing challenge issue.

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[-] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 months ago

Good, make them suffer.

[-] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

Trump really got them.

[-] cmlael67@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

They'd better not cut off supplies of fried rice and crab rangoon! We'll have a REAL problem if they do that!

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[-] KulunkelBoom@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

way to go trumpsky.

[-] j0ester@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Damn! First it was higher tariffs now this? How will MAGA ever get their swag gear?

[-] Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Shocking. I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

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this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025

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