China announces trump card news!
A few days ago, China announced the "Regulations on the Administration of Rare Earths" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), a total of 32 articles, which will come into force on October 1, 2024.
When many netizens saw this news, they all praised it, saying that the country did a good job! This is long overdue!
Chinese people rejoice and foreigners are sad.
Germany's Der Spiegel and Frankfurter Reviewer said that there are currently no operating rare earth mines in Europe, and the largest rare earth deposit in Europe discovered in Norway so far will not be officially mined until 2030. According to the Nikkei Asian Review website, the United States has also expanded rare earth mining, although it remains dependent on China for smelting and other processing steps.
German media also noted that the "regulation" was issued at a time when the European Union imposed temporary tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, and said that this could further exacerbate the EU's concerns about the limitation of rare earth supply.
The United States and Western European countries are less likely to spend the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain, which is like in mid-June, China's Ministry of Commerce issued an announcement announcing that it will conduct an anti-dumping investigation on imports of pork and pig by-products originating in the European Union with immediate effect. Although the attitudes of Germany and France are completely different, they all express that China's relevant policies are in response to the EU's imposition of tariffs on China.
It can only be said that the pattern of the United States and Western European countries is too narrow, and China's promulgation of the "Rare Earth Management Regulations" is entirely to protect rare earth resources, avoid over-exploitation, implement unified planning, and encourage and support the research and development and application of new technologies, new processes, new products, new materials and new equipment in the rare earth industry.
Tensions are high in countries around the world
China is not only the world's largest rare earth reserves, accounting for 37% of the world's total, but also a major producer of rare earths in the world.
The importance of rare earths will not be repeated here, only that rare earths are the collective name of 17 chemical elements, which are suitable for various fields of the national economy and defense industry, which shows that they are widely used.
In 2018, after China restricted the export of rare earths, countries around the world held various meetings to discuss how to deal with the rare earth dilemma.
In 2019, according to media reports, the U.S. Department of Commerce also issued a warning that if China and Russia cut off supplies to the United States, it could trigger a "considerable shock".
The reason why the United States reacted so much is because the United States knows very well that China's rare earths are particularly important to the United States and many countries around the world. First of all, the United States does not have a mining sector, nor does it have a related industrial chain, and it will take two or three years to build these at the earliest, and someone has to invest or someone who is willing to cooperate and be a leek for the United States.
Then, in July and August last year, China successively announced the relevant export restructuring and technology export adjustment, which made the United States and even other countries more nervous.
The American abacus has failed
The United States is unwilling to be choked by China for the sake of rare earths, so it has found many countries to "cooperate", in principle, "I will pay for you to develop", but the United States is willing to engage in so-called rare earth "cooperation" with other countries, there are two fundamental reasons, one is because the United States is very clear that rare earths are non-renewable resources, and there will be a day when the resources run out; The second is to achieve that all countries in the world can get rid of their dependence on Chinese rare earths and avoid China's monopoly on the global market.
Although some countries are still in the pit of the United States, Australia has made the right choice this time, not only benefiting, but also satirizing the United States.
At the end of July last year, Australian rare earths company PEAK Group and Chinese rare earth giant Shenghe Enterprise reached a cooperation agreement, and Peak Group's executive director Skrinshaw also commented on the cooperation, saying that the cooperation has allowed its rare earths projects to be brought into production several years earlier.
As we all know, Australia in the first two years was for the United States to smear China and interfere in China's internal affairs, until China cut off trade with Australia, and the United States refused to fulfill its previous commitments, so that Australia understood that it was just a handful of cannon fodder, and soon corrected its position, gradually resumed trade with China, and reached a cooperation agreement with China on rare earths, which the United States could not envy.
In the end, if the United States and Western European countries must think that this is China's response to additional tariffs or other unilateral sanctions, then think so, anyway, China has this strength, you can understand it as you want, but the resources are in our hands, we want to develop and develop, we can sell if we want, and use it as reasonably as we want, and it is not the turn of the United States and Western Europe.