“A country like China cannot be allowed to use its market position in key raw materials, technologies or products to create undesired geopolitical leverage and disrupt our economy,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech at LG Group during a visit to South Korea.
Yellen’s visit to South Korea has transformed herself into one of the newest dumb and sweet politicians. AP picture
Those key raw materials in China are monopolized, rare earths? Lithium mine? It has never been the case. China does not have the good conditions of Russia, Australia or even the United States, and its natural resources are not as generous as imagined. We are mining and developing at a price, and then supplying the world market at a par. The key materials that the United States and the West have been able to enjoy without polluting the environment in the past few decades, and have been continuously brought in from China, are a guarantee for China’s peaceful rise: China will realize the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, return to the center of the world three hundred years ago, The strategy of the largest economy is to rely on being the “world’s factory” and daring to mine natural minerals that the United States and the West regard as “dirty” to earn initial capital for industrial development.
According to the China Geological Survey, electric vehicles will be used in 2015. According to the White Oil Bulletin, lithium resources account for less than 14% of the world’s total, ranking after Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and the United States. Note that China’s lithium is not as much as the United States. Let’s look at stealth fighters, hypersonic aircraft, and even rare earth resources that are necessary for mobile phones and computers. In 2012, the State Council Information Office issued a report “China’s Rare Earth Status and Policy”: “China has relatively rich rare earth resources, and China’s rare earth reserves account for about 23% of the world’s total reserves.”
You don’t have to be happy that my country accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s rare earth resources. The “shouting” that made people cry is written in detail in the report. “(Rare earth) resources are over-exploited. After more than half a century of ultra-intensive mining, China’s rare earth resources reserves and guarantee life have continued to decline, major mining areas have accelerated the decline of resources, and most of the original mine resources have been depleted.” We are not “the second generation of mines” , Rare earths are hard to come by. “Most rare earths are located in remote mountainous areas, with high mountains and dense forests, scattered mining areas, numerous mining sites, high supervision costs and difficulties, and illegal mining has seriously damaged resources. The phenomenon of rich and poor, easy to discard and difficult to mine is serious, and the resource recovery rate is relatively high. The recovery rate of ionic rare earth resources in southern China is less than 50%, and the utilization rate of rare earth mines in Baotou is only 10%.”
In the past, when China’s industry had not yet entered the take-off stage, it had to rely on rare earths to make the first pot of gold, at a price that others could not afford—the ecological environment was severely damaged—“The backward production processes and technologies in rare earth mining, beneficiation, and separation, Serious damage to the surface vegetation, causing soil erosion, soil pollution, acidification, and reducing crop yields or even failing to harvest crops.” Although relatively advanced technology has been adopted, it still inevitably produces a large amount of ammonia nitrogen, heavy metals and other pollutants, destroying vegetation and causing serious pollution Surface water, groundwater and farmland…”. According to the report, “In some places, due to the over-exploitation of rare earths, landslides, river blockages, sudden environmental pollution incidents, and even major accidents and disasters have been caused, which have brought heavy losses to the life and health of the public and the ecological environment. Recovery and governance have also become a heavy burden for some rare earth producing areas.”
Although the above report is not the latest information, it is believed that China’s resources from lithium ore to rare earth have not improved much, and nature will not give us a gift. For example, Turkey, for example, was suddenly discovered to have enough rare earth resources in the world for 1,000 years. . In South Korea, Yellen accused China of not only “controlling” key raw materials, but also investing significant resources in its quest to gain dominance in the manufacture of certain advanced technologies, including semiconductors, while employing a series of unfair trade practices. If so, Yellen concluded that China “unfairly harms our national security interests.”
Yellen’s attacks on China’s demonization of technology and raw materials are embarrassing for her. There is a good sentence “China is messing up our economy.” I feel that this veteran economist has become young and can enter the ranks of “silly and sweet” youth politicians, which is really speechless.