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http://english.cri.cn/6909/2012/12/15/53s738568.htm

that's just silly. Esperanto is a Latinate language, and thus suitable solely for western thought and concepts.

Well, at least that's enough for propaganda of PRC and buddhism...[/not-so-serious]

We already have a logical, consistent Latinate language that isn't an artificial construct and in fact has over a million speakers, as opposed to Esperanto's few thousand (inflated lies to the contrary): Latin!

I don't speak Latin, but I feel your "consistent" is wrong.
Why is "artificial" a problem?

I don't know why we are relying on a Google translated article when Xinhua News Agency (state run) offers their own English translations (second copy) of this exact news release. And they're much more readable. Such news sites often offer me periodic enjoyment.

Patent and innovation discourse aside, it should be noted there's an interesting piece comparing the locality of populations in the US vs China. Let's face it, China (and the Southeast Asia region this connects them with) have a higher population density and a greater need for this high speed lengthy rail. It's also going to bring much needed economic development via freight shipments to very poor areas that the United States probably wouldn't experience on a corresponding scale.

Oh, also, there's some pretty entertaining rail-envy springing up.

And before you call it outright theft, consider the history of the "technology transfer" program that seeded all this. It sounds like there's going to be lengthy lawsuits lasting a decade or more and that the companies have reason to sue -- good reason. I wonder how this is going to affect future "technology transfer" programs to China. Also, one last bit of praise: NPR's radio coverage of this has been top notch.

As of now, the Chinese government is denying that there is an embargo over Rare Earth exports.

http://english.cri.cn/6826/2010/09/24/1821s596078.htm
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTKB00705420100924

There might still be some element of truth to it, but all the reports are getting confusing.

"Also TFA is complete bullshit, China cannot corner the Neodymium market:"

While that statement is true, you are distracting from the real issue. China is indeed striving to corner strategic mineral markets, and it's not "news".

http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/3124.html 2008 article which points out China's growing presence in the African mineral trade market.

http://www.chinamining.org/Companies/2009-03-26/1238054106d22981.html March 2009 article about China's growing presence in the common metals market, with passing reference to strategic metals.

http://www.domain-b.com/industry/Mining/20090327_australia_rejects.html March 2009 story about China making a bid to take over Australian mining.

http://english.cri.cn/7146/2009/01/08/1481s441134.htm January 2009 More to the point of this thread on slashdot, China is regulating the mining and export of strategic metals.

And, of course, this all goes back to their 10-year plans, and their bid to dominate the world, economically, politically, and militarily - the "Assassin's Mace". People with the slightest clue are worried about neodymium - but they are still missing the "big picture". That damned Assassin's Mace is a working plan, that is moving ahead, while the rest of the world sleeps.

The world economy won't improve, so long as China is waging an economic war, and we don't even realize it.

At least the Chinese don't get fat

Oh, don't worry, they're catching up.

That's the great thing about exporting American culture... eventually, the rest of the world will be as fat and lazy as we are.

It's obvious where this is going. Just read all the articles about the billions we're spending on the development of remote control flying killing machines. Our enemies will be too fat too run away, but our technology will allow us to fight even as we need to clean ourselves with a rag-on-a-stick.

World domination is at hand!

MWUA-HA-HA-HORK-acktph-[gasp]-[grunt]-HORK-[splat]-HA-HA-HA

While I, as you, am preparing to welcome my new Chinese overlords, there is one area of weakness in China's global domination plan you may not considered in your post:

China's arable land barely above critical minimum
Shrinking Arable Lands Jeopardizing China's Food Security
China not to Sacrifice Arable Land for Infrastructure Construction

"To my knowledge, it's never been used as such. I implore someone to prove me wrong if I am"

Two cases I'm aware of. A PC World article in Autstrailia dated 2004 says the Dutch cops used it in investigating a gang counterfeiting rail tickets. Look in the below first article, third paragraph under sub-heading "success". Second, China busted 3 for selling counterfeit rail tickets yesterday that used a high end printer to make them.

1. http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1002274598
2. http://english.cri.cn/2946/2008/02/14/195@323079.htm

One argument is that If the tracking technology was not there, would the cops have such an easy time picking up the dumb criminals? The other is that some governments would use this to track down those printing dissident materials.