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CSIS now says that China’s control over gallium is a national security threat for US

Mineral Monopoly: China’s Control over Gallium Is a National Security Threat

https://features.csis.org/hiddenreach/china-critical-mineral-gallium/

China has secured a virtual monopoly over gallium, a critical mineral used to produce microchips in advanced military technologies. Failing to de-risk gallium supply chains could have serious security and economic consequences for the United States and its allies.

Mineral Monopoly: China’s Control over Gallium Is a National Security Threat

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/2274036

Plays stupid games, win stupid prizes as the saying goes.

22 comments

ComradeChairmanKGB

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*Countries having control over their own resources is a serious threat to American corporate interests.

ComradePupIvy

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So, 2 questions 1, how do I get gallium, and 2 how do I give it to the PRC so they can get a bigger monopoly.

AlbigensianGhoul

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Building on that but on a more serious front, what third world countries in the world have more exploitable galium production that could get democratically expropriated by the international community?

Buchenstr

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None so far, except ukraine has found some gallium ores. But those minerals lie in the Donetsk region, so it can't be exploited. And ukraine will never get Donetsk so right now the west is completely starved of this resource.

AlbigensianGhoul

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So you're saying NATO is going to defensively first-strike nuke Russia to protect USA "national security" of foreign resources? \s

Marxine

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Common PRC W

yogthos

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It's kind of hilarious how US has been trying to find all kinds of ways to screw China over economically, and China just flexes by restricting a couple of items surgically causing panic in US. It's such an elegant way to let Americans know that China can fuck over their whole economy overnight.

Magos_Galactose

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Sometimes China didn't even need to do anything.

Toilet paper, for example.

yogthos

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Indeed, US is already a house of cards, so not exactly in the best position to fight an economic war with China of all places.

redtea

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Bidet sovereignty. Don't go to economic war unless you can be sure your people can still clean their bottoms.

AlbigensianGhoul

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Love how they have a bunch of suggestions that don't include "de-escalate the trade war."

From 2005 to 2015 alone, China’s production of low-purity gallium exploded from 22 metric tons to 444 metric tons.

It is always staggering to think how much China has developed technologically within just the last 20 years. I'm not even old but still remember when "Chinese" tech was popularly synonymous with "bootleg." Now it's all so good that the USA has to ban it while they play catch-up. They got beat at their own game.

yogthos

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Yeah, the progress in China is absolutely stunning and it looks to be accelerating too. Next decade will be incredible to watch.

Blursty

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Their train stations look like something out of science fiction.

misterslime12

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What all of the wonders of modern technology and none of the "efficiency" of capitalism does to a mf

yogthos

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Lots of people in the west still think that China is just stealing their tech and can't produce anything original of their own. The fact that most westerners are afraid to even visit China makes the work of western propagandists pretty easy. They can just make up stuff and rely on latent racism to do the rest of the work.

rjs001

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redtea

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It's the same with everything. Look at this: China built more 5G base stations in 3 months than US did in 2 years. Staggering. The PRC puts it's mind to something and there's nothing that will get in it's way. The may be delays. There may be hiccups. But the progress gets made.

We can't even provide 3G in some places in my country and it's supposed to be a 'developed' one.

TomJoadsGhost

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Seems silly. China is doing almost all the refining but they don't have a monopoly of the extraction of the originating mineral. There's a lot of it in Australia, and the US could pivot to doing its own refinement at any time.

yogthos

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The thing is that it's going to take a significant amount of time to create refining facilities, train workers, and so on. During that time, Chinese companies will have a huge market advantage over western ones.

Infamousblt

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I just find it funny that someone on some dumbass lib instance came in here and downvoted the thread and everyone in it.

Dude's mad at reality and taking it out on a tiny Internet forum. Hilarious. Your team is losing lib and there's nothing you can do about it

yogthos

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I expect that libs are going to be getting increasingly unhinged as they see their whole world unravel. We're still in the denial stages right now where they can still ignore the facts, but it's getting harder and harder to do their mental gymnastics to pretend that everything's going great for their ideology.