中国控制稀土出口.docVIP

China: Restriction measures target rare earth protection Rare earth, a class of 17 chemical elements, have become increasingly important in manufacturing sophisticated products, including flat-screen monitors, electric car batteries, wind turbines, missiles , aerospace alloys and so on. Chinas rare earth reserves account for 55.7 percent of the worlds total and as the supplier of more than 90 percent of the worlds rare earth must coordinate multiple factors related to rare earth production and exports, including economic development, resource conservation and environmental protection. A Chinese official said on Thursday that the country will not use rare earth as a bargaining chip . China should have the right to control their prices. But because of the long-term, excessive and disorderly mining of the elements at home, as well as the foreign intervention in fixing their prices, China has been deprived of having a say in either their exports or fixing of their prices. The result: China has been exporting rare earth elements at much lower prices, and developed countries such as the US and Japan have been importing more than they actually require. In fact, they have been importing to store the elements. This has led to a drain on Chinas rare earth reserves over the last two decades. Hence, China has more than enough reasons to try and adjust its export quota and play a decisive role in fixing the prices of rare earth elements. Although Chinas reserve of rare earth is not secure, the US and Japan seem to have stockpiled enough of the elements to meet their demand for some time to come. Its strange that despite having the worlds second largest reserve of rare earth, the US has not contributed anything to the world production since 2001. Instead, it has been forcing China to part with its reserves. And Japan has been stockpiling rare earth since 1983. The demand by the US and Japan that China increase exports of rare earth is thus not only unreasonable, but also offe