U.S. agencies alarmed by China’s curbs on exports of rare-earth minerals

So you must think that if China decides to go to war with the US they will keep selling us the things we need for weapons and survival? You don't think they would "pull the rug" out from underneath us? Not sure where you get conservatives or Americans can't understand economics in any certain way or as well as you think you do. I would think there are plenty that know more than you ever will and have forgot more than you have ever known. Your mind is to stuck on left vs right in every part of your life it seems to ever be half as smart as you might believe you are.

 

No need to take my word for it.

 

The likelihood of a war between two major trading partners is incredibly low. There is a reason that the mercantilist and economic nationalist world of the 19th century and the early 20th century had considerably more war than the last 80 years or so, as global trade exploded.

 

Why would they decide to go to war with someone who's economy is so tied up with theirs? If you dont think these are rational people and just want to screw over Americans at the earliest opportunity, why would you trade with them at all? What is our massive defense budget even buying if we cant deter or prevent a war with our biggest trading partner?

 

There are different ways to go to war with another country. Once we are dependent enough on their trade and they own enough of our land and businesses the war is on the way to being won. Here is one example-pork:


While it's difficult to pinpoint an exact percentage, China's ownership of U.S. pork production is significant. Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, is a subsidiary of the Chinese conglomerate WH Group. WH Group also owns other U.S. pork processing plants.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:

• Smithfield Foods:
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  This company, which operates as an independent subsidiary of WH Group, owns over 500 farms in the U.S. and contracts with another 2,000 independent farms to raise pigs.
• Chinese-owned farmland:
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  Chinese entities own 380,000 acres of farmland in the U.S., accounting for just over 3% of privately held agricultural land.
• Pork Exports:
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  China is a major market for U.S. pork exports, importing a significant amount of pork.

 

Its always interesting to see people who are capitalists view capitalism the way that the most vulgar of Marxists do, as some kind of crude system of world domination. I'm not a capitalist and I see us getting people calling themselves communists to do capitalism, the thing America is supposed to be all about. Isnt that us winning ideologically? Yes capitalism is full of contradictions when it comes to questions of nationalism, but that is why all those arch nationalist guys become fascists and turn against capitalism. Those people generally dont see the logic of trade other than people making concession to them, because Americans (or whoever) are special little guys, the most special people on Earth. Nationalism is stupid that way.

 

Well we are where we are. Given where we are, shooting ourselves in the foot is not the best way to move forward.

If we wanted to do something about it now, the Biden admin had a more coherent plan - subsidize important industries here and impose workable tariffs in the interim. The policy was far from perfect, and perhaps a fools errand, but it least it kinda made sense.

What we are doing now is ridiculously stupid.

As to how did we get here? We live in a global economy. The trend in the US was deregulation and embrace corporations maximizing profits and lower subsidization of industry. The result was outsourcing a bunch of stuff to China.

There was no appetite here for spending tons of money to prop up strategic industry, especially among republicans. I don’t necessarily disagree. But the world changes and sometimes strategies that made sense decades ago lead to unwanted side effects.

 

All the more reason why China won't go to war with the US. Way too many ties economically. War would be a losing proposition, even if China won the war.

And again, we're the biggest customer of Chinese rare Earth materials. Why would China want to piss us off? They know we have RE deposits that if we wanted to, could start to mine and cut off China. But keep us happy, and continue to buy from China.

Yes, there are all kinds of hypotheticals. China could do this or could do that. But they are the seller, and we are the buyer. And generally, the seller tries to do everything to keep the buyer happy, so they keep buying. It's a rational action. We screwed things up, and now the seller is not selling to us and looking for other buyers.

 

In hindsight, probably a better model would have been similar to what we did with Japan, and what China did with us. Have Chinese industry set up here, with our labor and shared ownership. That way we benefit from their advances and if they wage war against we just nationalize it.

 

they better not impact our bacon

 

Deep sea vacuum cleaners.

April 24 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at boosting the deep-sea mining industry, the latest attempt to boost U.S. production of nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy.
The broad order avoids a direct confrontation with the United Nations-backed International Seabed Authority and seeks essentially to jumpstart the mining of U.S. waters as part of a push to offset China's sweeping control of the critical minerals industry.


https://www.reuters.com/business/en...-executive-order-thursday-sources-2025-04-24/

 

Commie much? good lord

 

Maybe we should develop alternate supplies before we cut off the main supply? Maybe that would be smart? There is any easy way to de-couple from China (slowly raise tariffs and subsidize mining operations in the U.S. or friendly countries that have minerals) and a hard way (jacking tariffs through the roof, threatening to invade Greenland, stopping trade). Trump seems to have chosen the hard way. Dramatic? Absolutely. Wise? Not so much.

Why it is so hard for Trump voters to acknowledge that this tariff scheme was unwise is a mystery to me.

 

Yes, the Dems love Chinese money and funds that seem to be funneled though NGOs into their coffers.

 

The very nature of negotiating is giving and taking here and there until an amicable balance has been achieved.

This is why I find it strange that so many people in the Media think what Trump is doing with these trade deals is tantamount to waffling... nothing can be further from the truth. It's called negotiating in real time, and it's not on paper like some would like to see. That final contract (ON PAPER) will take far more time.

 

waffling? he's gettin' bitch slapped.

 

You're confusing yourself and your Party with what is happening to your side of the aisle. And Trump is doing the slapping...

 

December 19, 2023, Diamond Joe extended the US continental shelf by 200 nautical miles.