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China tightens export rules for crucial rare earths (www.bbc.com)

submitted 20 hours ago by yogthos@lemmygrad.ml to c/worldnews@lemmygrad.ml

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[–] chesmotorcycle@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

I really hope these stay in place for US weapons manufacturers whatever the outcome of trade negotiations. Capitalists famously will sell you the rope to hang them with, but there's no reason for socialists to do the same.

China has tightened export controls on rare earths and other materials critical for advanced tech manufacturing as trade negotiations continue with the US.

It processes around 90% of the world's rare earths, which go into everything from solar panels to smartphones - a key bargaining chip ahead of an expected meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump this month.

Beijing had already restricted processing technology and unauthorised overseas co-operation, but Thursday's announcement formalised the rules.

Foreign companies now need the Chinese government's approval to export products with even small amounts of rare earths and must explain their intended use.

The ministry announced similar restrictions on the export of lithium batteries and some forms of graphite, which are also essential components in the global tech supply chain and largely produced in China.

Beijing said the regulations are intended to "safeguard national security". One of the main targets of these controls appears to be overseas defence manufacturers, including those in the US, who rely on rare earths from China.

[–] fellagha@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

The US aside, this'll certainly also deal a huge blow to Europe's military industrial complex in the making.

[–] chesmotorcycle@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Yep, I can't wait to see the sun set on the West's ability to wage war.

[–] fellagha@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 9 hours ago

Plus, their path towards total outsourcing of domestic industry and talent to the imperial periphery, as far as manual labour is concerned, all for the goal of profit maximization through cheap labour exploitation is backfiring massively - not just economically, but also on Western society. The Western labour aristocratic population is hopeless. Just look at how consumerism is eroding the "handyman" and driving its kind to extinction, with everyone instead buying new commodities at a higher rate than ever, creating unnecessary waste and dependence on monopolizing firms. "Unnecessary waste" being a highly ironic key phrase given all the stupid greenwashing propaganda we see nowadays - watch this get co-opted by ecofascists by mass exporting future e-waste to "green transition" the "untermenschen" of the Global South once it gets discarded.

In the West, people literally cry about e.g. a 20 year old car being "too expensive to maintain and not worth it!" (artificial scarcity is a thing, yes - but it can be overcome!), whereas in Cuba for example, they drive old Soviet cars and American classics from the Batista era maintained through sheer ingenuity and improvised, collective craftsmanship. It completely defies these consumerist myths of "obsolescence" realized under late stage capitalism. Classic example of Gramscian cultural hegemony. It has left them with a useless FIRE economy. Basically, even imperialism struggles to offset the contradictions of the plague that is capitalism at this point. The chain is no stronger than its weakest link.

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