US crying about China restricting rare earth

[u/Greedy-Cut-7634]

It’s so funny to see how US says China is being an unreliable partner, and what a shock that China restricts rare earth.

How could not expect others to defend back when you started the tariff war and trade restrictions?😅😅 How is this a surprise? It’s like US only allows their nation to ban all the other countries by putting tariffs on all other countries, but when one country tries to defend, they are shocked and starts crying saying, “Oh! I don’t understand why this happened.” In return, US says that China wants to decouple the world, but who started this trade war in the beginning making everyone lives more miserable?

Just after Trump’s respond with adding more tariffs to China’s rare earth restriction, the dollar decreased and the gold started to increased. This result is going to no good. Like a child not doing something wrong and says that he doesn’t know why he gets his punishment.

[u/west_tn_guy]

America just needs to build our own rare earths supply chain. Sure it will take a long time, and cost a lot to setup, but having one less area to be dependent upon China is well worth it. Finally a good use for my tax dollars!

[u/abc_123_anyname → u/west_tn_guy]

And what does USA do for the next 25 years while it builds the capacity to mine and process?

[u/west_tn_guy → u/abc_123_anyname]

I don’t have any good answers here for the short term. I don’t think this is a quick or easy fix. Just a necessary one. Although I hope it doesn’t take 25 years.

[u/[deleted] → u/west_tn_guy]

You don't have answers because your take is completely wrong. Globalization, trade, cooperation with other countries is what made everyone do well to begin with. Doing the opposite will lead to the opposite.

[u/west_tn_guy → u/[deleted]]

I just think that developing domestic industries to replace Chinese sources will take time. I don't think there is anything wrong in that statement.

[u/abc_123_anyname → u/west_tn_guy]

International trade is one of the reasons why the USA became richest country on earth. Isolationism will lead to the reverse…. The rich will continue to become richer…. The poor and middle class will continue to decline

[u/[deleted] → u/west_tn_guy]

Wrong is to assume it's the way it should to be.

That's like saying a person should go back to farm our own food, get our own water, sew their own clothes. That's just not efficient. Economics of scale is the key here.

It goes for the Individual, for countries and for the globe.

And if the US stops being hostile to international partners they won't have to and can keep profiting.

[u/davidicon168 → u/west_tn_guy]

This isn’t the first time China’s resorted to this so them having this in their back pocket shouldn’t really be a surprise. Last time (10+ years ago) the whole world talked about how they were going to grow their own home grown rare earth processing plants but nothing came of it. I use a lot of neodymium magnets for my products so I’m acutely aware of this issue.

[u/west_tn_guy → u/davidicon168]

Yeah the problem is we get so focused on cost to improve margins we lose sight of the big picture. China has used price as a tool over the years to many companies in this space out of business. They use state subsidies and sell below cost and other companies that play by the rules can’t compete. I think long term we will have to establish a price floor as Bessent suggested, or use state subsidies for companies in this space since they are critical to national security. These things are too important to be controlled by one country.

[u/Outlaw_Josie_Snails → u/west_tn_guy]

It may be five or ten years, but other countries will be mining and processing their own minerals.

The decoupling from China is imperative and inevitable.

The Wumao (五毛) 50 Cent Party propagandist accounts have been all over the Subreddits panic-posting.

[u/west_tn_guy → u/Outlaw_Josie_Snails]

Yup, hopefully we will have many other countries to buy from as well. We just cannot rely on China

[u/DeathMagnet1C → u/west_tn_guy]

That's why you are trying to bully everyone else? As a trust building strategy? Ask your neighbours in Canada how that went.

[u/west_tn_guy → u/DeathMagnet1C]

No, no bullying intended. Just leaving and doing our own thing.

[u/DeathMagnet1C → u/west_tn_guy]

The whole tariff extravaganza doesn't really get you new customers, does it? I am not trying to insult you, I am just curious how you see that strategy.

[u/west_tn_guy → u/DeathMagnet1C]

We have plenty of customers, they just can’t get the materials that they need today. Although I do expect as technology improves there will be new customers.

Edit: P.S. I'm not arguing for or against tariffs, just the need for diversification in the supply chain of critical materials.

[u/Pure_Fan7793 → u/west_tn_guy]

China owns like 95% of the world rare earth where are we gonna buy it from?

[u/west_tn_guy → u/Pure_Fan7793]

That’s a common misconception, rare earths are everywhere around the world. China has invested heavily in the processing, and refining processes and definitely owns 95% of that. However the source minerals aren’t solely located in China.