As the trade war continues to escalate, China has hit back at Trump by suspending exports of rare earth minerals.

Summary

China has now imposed export controls on a range of critical rare earth minerals and magnets, dealing a major blow to the US.

“Rare earths” are a group of 17 chemically similar elements that are crucial to the manufacture of many high-tech products. Everything you can switch on or off likely runs on rare earths.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that China accounts for about 61% of rare earth production and 92% of their processing.

A US Geological report notes that between 2020 and 2023, the US relied on China for 70% of its imports of all rare earth compounds and metals.

  • FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    775·
    3 days ago

    Trump fucked around, now America gets to find out

    America was never a leader, is was always a bully

    Now the world had had enough and is pushing back. The facade is slipping and America is shown to be the house of cards it always was

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.worldEnglish
      531·
      3 days ago

      Americans fucked around. We took our democracy for granted. We were too polite to challenge the bigots in our lives. We were too afraid of being called elitist or communist or soft, so we sat on the sidelines with furrowed brows and clutched pearls while shitty people steamrolled our freedoms to pave the road to their own successes.

      We’re all to blame. The Conservative shitbags, the opportunistic centrists, the ineffectual progressives, and the shiftless appliticals who never bothered to try. Trump didn’t happen to America. Trump is the inexorable conclusion of America.

      • FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        30·
        3 days ago

        It was very carefully and insidiously taken from you

        I agree that it was inevitable though. It was a county founded on the idea of fucking people over to get ahead

        Maybe there’s hope for the future. I sure hope that there is

    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pubEnglish
      16·
      3 days ago

      It used to be a bully you could reason and work with, and that at least understood give and take. Now it’s just a drunk bully, starting fights for whatever.

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      3 days ago

      The world gets to find out. None of this affects only the USA or China. They‘re both freaking out right now.

      • FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        272·
        3 days ago

        It was stolen from the indigenous population

        It only achieved independence because the French hated the English

        It has interfered with the autonomy of so many countries

        The US sat out of the second world war until the tail end things, because there were quite a few people who thought that Hitler was actually pretty cool (so history is repeating)

        Since then there has been a series of wars waged purely to try to show other competing powers that 'Murica punches hard

        I think it’s hilarious that you call me “tough guy”, as though I value people thinking that I’m a hard cunt or something

        That’s a yank thing.

        I don’t have to worry about my safety, because I don’t live in a country where violence is ever-present due to everyone being afraid of everyone else

        • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          3 days ago

          Clearly I’m not going to win an argument about hating America if I do as well. But there are a lot of us here that haven’t done anything wrong and have done everything we can to stop/change things.

          And yeah, the fucking BRITISH of all people have room to be judgemental of America.

          Edit: /s

          Edit edit: also, I want to point out that the spanish, French and British did the colonizing. We took it from them. And THEN we did the horrible stuff to the people who were left.