If Washington intended to bully Beijing economically and indefinitely, July 3 was a rude awakening. That’s when China announced export controls on two, vital rare earth metals, germanium and gallium. In and of itself this move clobbers one sector of U.S. industry, such as it is. But even worse is what it portends. China has 60 percent of the world’s supply of rare earth minerals. The other 40 percent are in locations of dubious accessibility. But that’s not all. Ninety percent of the processing of those rare earth minerals occurs in the country U.S. sanctions have royally pissed off, namely China. More
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This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Eve Ottenberg.