News world: Will rare earth become a trump weapon?

News world

Before the Sino -US trade war officially started last year, Chinese scholar Jin Canrong pointed out that rare earths were a trump card that China countered, but this view did not attract too much attention from public opinion at the time, because many people felt that Sino -US relations would not be bad to that level.Essence

In early May of this year, the Sino -US trade war was fully upgraded, and Jin Canrong's prophecy was fried by public opinion.On May 20, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China ... made a special trip to inspect the rare earth industry in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, emphasizing that rare earth is an important strategic resource.The possibility of rare earth concept stocks has risen sharply, and rare earths have also risen significantly.

On May 28, the China National Development and Reform Commission actively talked about whether the rare earth would become an anti -weapon in the form of answering reporters, saying that if anyone wants to use the products made by our exports of rare earth, it is used to curb the suppression of China's development.The people and the Chinese people in the Central Soviet Area of Jiangnan will be unhappy.The next day, the mainstream official media People's Daily and Xinhua News Agency made comments, echoing the statement of the person in charge of the Development and Reform Commission.

At this point, China has not had much suspense for rare earths as counter -weapons.According to China's official operation model, the National Development and Reform Commission and mainstream official media have spoken, indicating that China has done a solution to restricting or even prohibiting rare earth exports to the United States. Once the senior management thinks that the time is mature, the sword of rare earth will pierce the United States.

Can it really tingle the United States?

The remaining suspense is: Once the sword of rare earth falls, can it really tingle the United States and become the Chinese ace weapon?

Although rare earth elements are indispensable vitamins for modern industries, such as mobile phones, turbine fans, chips, medical imaging, aerospace, high -tech weapons, new energy vehicles, etc. are inseparable from rare earth, but China is not an exclusive global rare land resources. The United StatesThere are also many rare earth reserves in Australia, Canada and other countries. Why can China use rare earth to counter the United States?

There are two main reasons.First, China is not only the world ’s first in the world, but also completes, including various heavy rare earth elements in high -precision manufacturing.At the same time, China is also the world's number one rare earth producer. Last year's rare earth mining accounted for 71%of the world.In 2017, about 4 tons of rare earth imported from the United States from China from China. Last year, the United States imported rare earth from China by 17%year -on -year.

The second reason is more important.China is not only the largest rare earth producer, but also leading other countries in rare earth mining, smelting, and separation and purification technology, occupying a dominant position in the global rare earth industry chain.Last year, the global sparse earth smelting output was about 146,000 tons, of which China's output was 125,000 tons.The rare earth industry in the United States has continued to decline in the past 30 years, and even the only surviving rare earth mining company must export ore to China for processing and refining.

However, once China really restricts the rare soil exporting to the United States, the United States is not unable to do it.

First of all, it is impossible for China to prohibit all rare earth exports.China does not have the ability to monitor as much as the United States, and it is difficult to ensure that the rare earths of exporting other countries are not transferred to the United States.Secondly, the United States and its allies have also produced and processed rare earth after all.Once China stuck its neck on the rare earth problem, these countries can increase rare earth smelting technology while expanding the scale of mining. Of course, this takes several years or even more than ten years.

It is not difficult to foresee that if China uses the weapon of rare earth, it is likely to make the United States feel pain.However, the Sino -US trade war was originally a result of double losses or even more losses. Only by negotiating instead of reporting from reporting, the conflict is really in line with the interests of both China and the United States and even the world.