CCP Evaluating a Ban on Exports of Rare Earth Magnets
What are the downstream implications of this move?
Everything is dual use.
Everything is dual use.
Everything is dual use.
Rare earth magnets are used as critical medical device components. They’re used in EV motors, wind turbines, phones, satellites, and in a host of other applications.
They’re also used in in high-tech weaponry like railguns and catapult launchers for aircraft carriers.
Now that the Chinese Communist Party has achieved critical mass in areas like intellectual property theft, reverse engineering of high technologies, and the export of the proceeds of those two combined endeavors — some major and dramatic changes are in the beginning stages of surfacing.
Above, you have the primer — a notion that the Commerce Secretary was aware of this issue of trade restrictions several years ago.
Below.. Fast forward to this assessment from today — the CCP is going to look at restricting exports on rare earth magnets, along with what will likely turn into a host of other components:
China Plans to Ban Exports of Rare Earth Magnet Tech
BEIJING — China is considering banning the export of technologies used to produce high-performance rare earth magnets deployed in electric vehicles, wind turbine motors and other products, citing “national security” as a reason, it has been learned.
With the global trend toward decarbonization driving a shift toward the use of electric motors, China is believed to be seeking to seize control of the magnet supply chain and establish dominance in the burgeoning environment sector.
Beijing is currently in the process of revising its Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited and Restricted from Export — a list of manufacturing and other industrial technologies subject to export controls — and released a draft of the revised catalog for public comment in December. In the draft, manufacturing technologies for high-performance magnets using such rare earth elements as neodymium and samarium cobalt were added to the export ban. The solicitation of comments ceased late January and the revisions are expected to be adopted as early as this year.
Article continues below:
And it seems that this soon-to-be-restricted technology originated in Japan (of course) — with the Japanese government finding itself asleep at the wheel:
Japan Drops Ball on Rare Earth Magnet Technology
Japanese government measures to prevent the outflow of manufacturing technology related to high-performance, rare-earth magnets appear to have failed.
China, whose firms developed technology and equipment acquired from Japan, now dominates the market for advanced magnets, a highly important sector in which Japanese companies used to have a competitive edge.
The Japanese government implemented export controls on goods and technologies that can be converted to military use under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law: comprising so-called “list controls” and “catch-all controls.” List controls target goods that have a high risk of being converted into weapons of mass destruction, and catch-all controls involve broader restrictions on items not covered under list controls.
Are there many governments today not completely asleep at the wheel?
Nope.
Beijing, which is in the process of revising a list of technologies subject to export controls, is poised to regulate magnet manufacturing technology that China claims was developed domestically even though it originated in Japan.
Similar circumstances existed in the past for technologies related to high-speed railroads and photovoltaic panels.
Now that the CCP has attained dominance as an exporter of critical precursor and finished technologies alike — expect them to begin the types of export controls for dual use technologies that the U.S. and other countries have done in cycles past.
Combine this with what is approaching an ‘imminent’ invasion of Taiwan — expected to happen sometime in the next few years, depending on the outcome of the next election cycle there — and what you are looking at is further proof of a looming, new (and more totalitarian) multipolar world order.
I don’t know how accurate this is, but I heard via a close friend (whom I consider a VERY reliable source) that OUR country has a plethora of rare earth minerals available, but this administration (regime) refuses to allow mining of them.
I was wondering when that boomerang was coming.✝️🇺🇸