[verdverm]

> the West could retaliate by halting shipments of

China quickly retaliated last time by stopping shipments of rare earths and magnets. The West has no answer for this, really up the river without a paddle for such critical supply chain elements.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

I was led to believe that the US does have internal sources of these, but they are largely undeveloped. For years the processing could not economically compete with China so shutdown.

Which is to say, given internal subsidies, the US could eventually produce some on its own.

Unless I misunderstood the situation.

[verdverm]

I believe we both share this understanding, the problems are

1. China controls ~90% today

2. The US will find it difficult to build out because of how dirty and environmentally damaging mining and processing are.

I did see some research last week about a better way to process rare earths, but it is still research and will need to be industrialized.

Regardless, it will take many years (decade+?) to become self sufficient and China is already willing to and increasingly restricting them

[verdverm]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49084690

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-may-need-allo...

[tw1984]

China controls way more things, from medical needles to pharmaceutical ingredient.

Lots of them can be made in the west or west friendly countries, but that takes time, money, infrastructure and good execution. Yes, identical to what is covered in China's belt and road initiatives. See the gap now?