Xi Sounds 'Long March' Rallying Call From a Rare Earths Mine

Source: Check Point Asia

Xi didn't even mention the trade war. He didn't need to. The message could not have been clearer Trade War Joys

by Zhou Xin | 20 May 19

China is not afraid of a struggle and will not capitulate. And oh yes, rare earth embargo is on the table. China supplies 90 percent of the global demand and is home 50 percent of the world's discovered reserves. How do you like that picture?

Chinese President Xi Jinping has sought to tap into the "Long March" spirit of endurance to rally the public as trade and technology tensions rise with the United States, observers said.

In his first domestic trip since the escalation of the US-China trade war early this month, Xi visited one of the country's major rare earths mining and processing facilities in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.

He also paid respects at a monument in Yudu, a county in the city, marking the start of the Communist Party's Long March 85 years ago, the report said.

Xi was accompanied by Vice-Premier Liu He, Xi’s most trusted adviser and China's top trade negotiator in the year-long talks with the US.

State media gave few details of the trip and made no mention of the trade war, but analysts said the president's visit sent a strong message of China’s determination in the stand-off.

China has toughened its rhetoric in recent weeks as Washington raised tariffs on thousands of Chinese exports and put China's telecom champion Huawei on an export-control list. There is also growing speculation in China that Beijing could consider banning the export of rare earths to hit back at the US.

The Long March was an epic military retreat from 1934 to 1936 undertaken by the party's Red Army, the forerunner of the People’s Liberation Army, to evade Kuomintang troops during the Chinese civil war. The thousands on the march covered some of the country's most difficult terrain and the feat is evoked as a symbol of unity in the face of ordeals.

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Related:

Result: "Our military is 100% reliant on China for critical technology metals, alloys, magnets, garnets and other post-oxide rare earth materials," writes James Kennedy.

Mr. Kennedy runs a firm called ThREE Consulting — which as you might imagine from the name specializes in REEs. His clients have included two presidential administrations, Congress and a host of federal agencies — including the Pentagon.

Kennedy says Washington’s supply of "smart bombs" is nearly used up — thanks to the Obama administration's relentless bombing campaigns in Syria. By the early days of the Trump administration in 2017, the Pentagon was drawing on its supplies stockpiled elsewhere around the world to keep up the pace.

"The Syrian action suggests that even a limited action in Iran would fully deplete U.S. weapons inventories in just a few months."

"Once these weapons are used up they can only be replaced if China decides to sells us these critical materials," Kennedy goes on. 

And how likely is that? "China relies on Iranian oil and has clearly signaled that it will defy U.S. sanctions on Iran. China has also recently signaled that it is hunkering down for what may prove to be a protracted trade war."

So… not very likely, then.

https://lfb.org/author/davegonigam/

China Banning US Purchases of Rare Earths Is a Realistic Retaliation Option That Would Sting Like Hell