Here's a link to a new BBC story (plus two earlier backgrounders): China assures US over rare earths China assures the US that it has no intention of withholding the 'rare earth' minerals key to the world's high-tech industries from the international market. Concerns over shortage of rare metals Exotic minerals of modern life I'm putting this here because some folks have posted stories of worries about materials for hybrid batteries. Of course, since this story is about statements made by politicians to politicians, its hard to judge their credibility. It's also interesting in light of recent Sino-Japanese tensions, that these statements are being made to the US.
Economics makes a lot of sense. China is transitioning from a command to a demand economy but the legacy of the command economy was 1930s-50s economics and currency values. So in the 1990s, the Communist Party could dictate the costs and prices, an economic policy that led to their current industrialization. Now China has transitioned to a resource consumer in their own right. Bob Wilson
