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Xi Plays His Trump Card
I hate to rub it in, particularly considering that, as an American, I'm on the wrong side of this, b
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“the messer has become the messees”
– Chandler Bing
No doubt Republicans and other rightwing loudmouths will try to blame Biden and Obama for this strategic negotiating card we gave to China. But the accusers themselves are 90% responsible. When saner voices tried to marshal support for government assistance to the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine over ten years ago, the right-wing purists screamed against it. Often saying things like “We don’t pick winners. Don’t you remember Solyndra?”
The rightwingers won the day, allowing US capital to focus on more strategically important industries, such as electric scooter rentals and meal delivery services. This effectively left the market to the Chinese who skillfully manipulated market supply and pricing to stymie other nations from entering the market.
Do a web search on “Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine” for a fuller history.
As to “Some argue the rare earths threat is overstated” they are partly correct. But only in terms of ore deposits, which actually are rather abundant across the globe. The commercial viability of many deposits are too low to merit refining. (I believe that the “valuable mineral deposits” Trump wants in Ukraine mostly fall into that category.)
However, this does NOT apply to refined products, such as those used to produce the magnets in question. For some strange reason people do not seem to welcome the construction and operation of REE ore refineries anywhere close to their homes. They have proven to be even less popular than even lead smelters. Whodathunkit?
The leading non-Chinese REE refineries are run by Australian companies in that country and in Malaysia (Lynas Corp). MP Materials in the US has a refinery well under construction in pollution-friendly Texas as does Lynas. The Biden administration helped finance both citing national security to justify the expenditures.
It’s about time though even when they are running, we will continue to need foreign ores and some finished products because the term Rare Earth Elements is plural and covers over ten of them which are not always present in all areas.
It’s not super-difficult to apply to the other powerful wild card we gave to China = encouraging the production of the most advanced logic chips solely on an island as close to the mainland as Cuba is to us. But we don’t pick winners, right?
Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine
My inherently contrarian and half-Chinese eyes finally spy a blatant misstep on the part of Xi.
He is wasting his time signing the latest manifestation of The Arts of the Memorandum of Understanding and Letter of Intent, not to mention establishing time limits or detailed use restrictions on REE exports to the US. All Xi has to do is require that FULL MAGNETS only be exported to the US fully immersed in water, thus rendering them into silvery-white door stops that may serve as perfect complements alongside the gold ones with which everyone’s currently enthralled.
I’d give a lot to be a Chinese fly on the wall after the Lutnick-Navarro clown show featuring MC Auntie Bessent departs the wherever meeting or hangs up the phone …