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Sentence | Shōmei
Edit| Zhaoming
The countdown to the US presidential election has begun, and the struggle between the two parties has become white-hot, however, just recently, the two parties have rarely united in the united front, and there are dangerous signs that they want to attack China's key minerals.
In the past two years, around the presidential campaign, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party in the United States have simply done everything, Trump was found guilty, Biden's son was also sent to court, and the two parties have quarreled to the point of endless death.
And the only thing that can make them have a common goal is to target China, which is not only a consistent tactic of the US election, but also the only way to be troubled by the hegemonic mentality of the United States.
So what are they going to do this time?
According to a report by the Observer Network on June 19, John Mulenal, chairman of the U.S. "U.S.-China Special Committee on Strategic Competition" and a Republican, made it clear that he would establish a "bipartisan policy working group."
As the name suggests, this decision is not just a hot idea of the Republican Party, but has been approved by the Democrats, according to Mullenal's relevant statement, the head of this "group" is the Republican Rep. Rob Whitman of Virginia and Rep. Kathy Custer of Florida.
It is rare for the two parties to reach an agreement on cooperation in the United States at present, that is to say, these people have worked hard this time, and they are determined to take action against China.
In the words of Mulenal, the main tasks of this "group" are:
Focusing on countering China's control of critical minerals supply chains, it aims to weaken China's dominance in the supply of critical minerals in order to reduce U.S. dependence on China for critical minerals used in a variety of products, including semiconductors, wind turbines, and electric vehicles.
To put it simply, the United States still wants to reduce its imports of critical mineral resources from China in order to gradually achieve the goal of complete "decoupling".
As early as July 3 last year, the relevant departments of the mainland issued an announcement to implement export controls on two key metals, gallium and germanium.
And the United States did not show weakness, and immediately announced that "electric vehicles using battery components made or assembled in China will not be eligible for the U.S. government's subsidy of up to $7,500", in an attempt to accelerate the process of decoupling from China.
The United States is also actively seeking to replace the insufficient import of resources from Australia, Mongolia and other countries.
However, the results were not ideal, and after more than half a year, the U.S. government was surprised to find that many U.S. companies were still secretly importing critical minerals from China, because some ingredients were difficult to buy elsewhere.
For this reason, the US government has had to relax policy restrictions, that is, the attempt to "decouple" from China has obviously failed.
This has made the US government very depressed, and the "Bipartisan Policy Working Group" led by Mulaynaar is looking for ways to "decouple" from China at an early date.
"Critical minerals are the cornerstone of everything, from basic consumer goods to advanced military technology," Mulenard declared. In the event of a conflict, U.S. dependence on China to control supply chains for critical minerals will quickly become an existential weakness. ”
To that end, he advocated for a series of reforms and incentives to enhance the extraction of critical minerals in the United States.
In fact, the United States is indeed rich in reserves of some critical minerals.
Take germanium metal as an example, at present, the world's proven reserves are 86 million tons, of which the United States germanium reserves have reached 38.7 million tons, accounting for 45% of the world's first, and China is close behind, with 41%.
However, in terms of the current supply of germanium in the global market, China has long supplied 68.5% of germanium metal, while the United States has supplied less than 20%.
The reason for such a huge contrast is that as early as 1984, the U.S. government protected germanium as a national defense reserve resource, and since the 21st century, it has almost stopped developing germanium ore from home, and the demand basically depends on imports from abroad.
In other words, the United States has a large amount of germanium ore, and if it does not import from China at the moment, the best way is to exploit its own minerals, but this is contrary to the original intention of the United States to protect strategic resources.
Taking 10,000 steps back, even if the US government agrees to exploit a large amount of local germanium ore, its utilization rate and competitiveness are obviously far inferior to China's due to technological backwardness.
In recent years, the United States has been trying to find a new supply chain to replace China, but each time it has been a failure, and on December 15 last year, the Wall Street Journal made a special follow-up report on this, and they finally came to a very helpless conclusion:
Western businesses have faced numerous "unusual obstacles" on this difficult path.
In other words, it is not feasible for Mullenard to target China with this, and the facts are there, and their shouting is likely to be a political show to show that the United States will continue to target China, so that the "little brothers" below will continue to follow the sanctions against China.
In fact, in the current era of economic globalization, "decoupling and breaking the chain" will only hurt both sides, and in this matter, mainland Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning has long made clear China's attitude:
Decoupling and breaking the chain is a double-edged sword, hurting others and harming one's own interests. China does not favor decoupling and chain breaking, and decoupling and chain breaking cannot stop China's development
I advise these American politicians who are "idle and have nothing to do" to think more about how to work for the welfare of the American people and stop doing these meaningless things.
Resources:
Observer.com, "U.S. China Commission Establishes Bipartisan Policy Working Group "Aims to Counter China's Control of Critical Minerals Supply Chains"