Ray Dalio warns China restricting rare earth metals would be 'major escalation' of trade war

Not long ago the Americans were saying these "rare" earth metals weren't that rare.

Were they bluffing?

In any kind of war people will use anything at their disposal in the fight.

All well thinking people know wars are best avoided.

In a war ALL PARTIES LOSE

Then America should innovate more, China loses

Correct

Innovate and then China just zerox it

That's why China won't agree with US on matters of intellectual property rights. If they can't zerox it, they lose. They know it.

Yes, this is exactly the case, Russia is also considering imposing sanctions on titanium for US aircraft.

I dont see anything wrong with xerox because US is exploiting the human resources from other nations, the best including from Asia. Bulling has become the diplomacy of the day. Just shutoff your economy to the world and US should be an island unto itself.

The recycling business is looking up.

China has been the most prolific producer of patents and the foremost innovator in a number of essential fields in recent years. Any violation of I.P. rights won't do them good because that will give the others an excuse to forfeit their I.P. rights. If the U.S. wishes to complain about another country, then they need to back their complaints with some solid proofs. Show them to the world. Otherwise the allegations are just plain hot air.

What's next? U.S. banning exports of microprocessors? This trade war is total madness. If it is not controlled, the world's two largest economies may end up cutting off all connections from each other.

U.S. and China need to look beyond the meaningless goal of being the 'No. 1 Economy'. It is not much different from the arms race before the two world wars. They should instead work together to tackle the 'real enemies', such as diseases, pollution, natural disasters, accidents etc. They should compete to become the 'No. 1 Innovator' and see who can leave the most honorable mark in history.

Ask not what the world can do for your country. Ask what your country can do for the world. Nationalism, racism, and religious fanaticism -- these I call the axis of evils.

Once upon a time, trade war is subtle where we have import tax , subsidize, quota, etc, where most of the population aren't aware and only look at the price tag.

Solutions are simpler.....Just get leaders who understand the world and have bigger dreams and ambition that benefit everyone without coming from a position of fear, greed and "I am better than you mindset".

It is similar leadership that happened 20 years ago which opened up the Global economy to make it the place it is today and everyone has benefited. The price of a television to average people on the planet is much lower that it would have been otherwise!

Trump is the type to always double down while trying to offload the blame onto someone/something else. When the lie becomes your reality, then everything else becomes a lie to you. Enter the twilight-zone...

No they were not. This is a scientific fact. Earth crust contains more Cerium than Copper, for instance. The problem with Lanthanides (aka rare earth elements) is not that they are rare but that they are dispersed. They do not occur in highly concentrated ore deposits. A good rare earth ore may contain something like 0.05% or 0.1%. So, first, Lanthanides, being minor components, have to be separated from a large mass of the main components. Then, they have to separated from one another and because of their very close chemical properties, this is very difficult. Overall, the process is polluting and labor intensive hence expensive. And if there is radioactive Thorium in the mixture, costs go way up. Which is why everyone was happy to let PRC do it. PRC has a few mining sites on their own but they also do the processing for a lot of raw material coming from other countries.