China Halts Shipments of Rare Earth Minerals to the United States and Europe
October 20th, 2010

Via: New York Times:

China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said on Tuesday.

The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further intensify already rising trade and currency tensions with the West. Until recently, China typically sought quick and quiet accommodations on trade issues. But the interruption in rare earth supplies is the latest sign from Beijing that Chinese leaders are willing to use their growing economic muscle.

“The embargo is expanding” beyond Japan, said one of the three rare earth industry officials, all of whom insisted on anonymity for fear of business retaliation by Chinese authorities.

They said Chinese customs officials imposed the broader restrictions on Monday morning, hours after a top Chinese official summoned international news media Sunday night to denounce United States trade actions.

China mines 95 percent of the world’s rare earth elements, which have broad commercial and military applications, and are vital to the manufacture of products as diverse as cellphones, large wind turbines and guided missiles. Any curtailment of Chinese supplies of rare earths is likely to be greeted with alarm in Western capitals, particularly because Western companies are believed to keep much smaller stockpiles of rare earths than Japanese companies.

China experts said on Tuesday that Beijing’s assertive stance on rare earths might also signal the ascendance of economic nationalists, noting that the Central Committee of the Communist Party convened over the weekend.

Officials at the media relations office of China’s commerce ministry did not respond all day on Tuesday to e-mail or telephone calls seeking confirmation of the expanded embargo.

Related: The U.S. Military Depends on China for the Metals Required to Build Smart Bombs

China is communist as is the charter (Land of Liberty...masonic "principals") of the US. Some veteran Catholics who know how things really work, have said the "Cold War" was phoney i.e., stagged. It certainly is probable???

I believe the "collapse" of the former Soviet Union and its reconstruction into a muscle-bound "capitalist" economic powerhouse under Putin was quite possibly staged, as well.

Although I kind of like Putin, a little bit. Sometimes.



Here it looks like he's hunting at the Bush ranch in Crawford. I don't think Dick Cheney went along on this trip, though.

A man who likes dogs can't be all bad. (Well, actually, he can, but, anyway...)