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China Begins Stockpiling Rare Earths, Draws WTO Attention
eldavojohn writes "A report by China Securities Journal claims that China is now stockpiling rare earths although it has not indicated when this stockpiling started. Many WTO members have complained about China's tightening restrictions on exports of rare earths while China maintains that such restrictions are an attempt to clean up its environmental problems. A WTO special conference scheduled for July 10th will hopefully decide if China's restrictions are unfair trade practices or if the US, the EU and Japan are merely upset that they can't export their pollution and receive rare earths at low prices. Last year, China granted its mining companies the right to export 30,200 tons but in actuality only 18,600 tons were shipped out of country."
China thinks ahead, but doesn't play nice.
They could be doing it not just for practical purposes but possibly for setting up a DeBeers of rare earth metals.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
The minerals are theirs; why shouldn't they keep them?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
They can't and won't. They're afraid of China.
The world will eventually regret not opposing the rise of China, because they will be bullies 100 times worse than the Americans at their worst, with the added bonus that the Chinese are fiercely xenophobic and have a massive chip on their shoulder from their "100 years of humiliation".
I'm looking forward to an age of oppression and tyranny under the boot of the Chinese Communist Party.
They sell low cost consumer goods by manipulating exchange rates.
They don't see low cost raw materials by manipulating supply.
Both sides function as pro-Chinese manufacturing, anti-US manufacturing.
Allowing people to do stupid shit to themselves is my idea of "fair". What is unfair is expecting the rest of us to bail out their stupidity in the name of "fairness" or whatever. Sorry, but trying to fix people's idiocy doesn't accomplish a thing except make a few people feel better about themselves as being some form of superior or another.
Stupid should hurt. That is how some people learn (and often the ONLY way they learn)
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.