Have The Commies Won After All?

Rare earth minerals are critical in making a wide variety of high-tech products, ranging from smart phones to smart bombs. The economies, national defense, and day-to-day life of developed countries are dependent on them.

Q: Who produces 95% of the world's rare earth supply?

A: China

Last fall China halted shipments of rare earth as a result of a fishing dispute with Japan.

Throughout the five weeks of the embargo, even when China expanded the rare earth shipping halt to include the United States and Europe, Beijing denied there was a ban.

Whatever it was called, a shipping suspension that started amid China’s diplomatic dispute with Japan over a wayward fishing trawler escalated into a broader international trade issue.

To many outsiders, the undeclared embargo looked like a pure power play — a sign China would wield its growing economic might and apply its chokehold on an important industrial resource with little regard for the conventions of international trade. The export quotas China continues to impose on rare earths, even when it does let ships leave the docks, are restricting global supplies and causing world market prices to soar far beyond what Chinese companies pay.

Actually, China holds only around 35% of the world's known rare earth reserves. Sizable deposits exist in the U.S., Canada, Australia, India, Brazil, and assorted other countries. China produces 95% of the world supply because it ignores environmental concerns when mining and processing the raw ore.

China feels entitled to call the shots because of a brutally simple environmental reckoning: It currently controls most of the globe’s rare earths supply not just because of geologic good fortune, although there is some of that, but because the country has been willing to do dirty, toxic and often radioactive work that the rest of the world has long shunned.

Sounds very similar to the situation we've gotten ourselves into with oil and gas. We have plenty of proven reserves, but the greenies think it's better to pay enemies of our country for a product we should be able to provide for ourselves.

And then we have the russkies.

BP signed a major deal that will give the Russian government a chunk of Britain's biggest oil firm.

Both companies have also agreed to co-operate in drilling for oil reserves in the Arctic.

Questions will be asked about the security of Britain's energy supplies, given Russia's history of playing politics with oil and other resources.

Closer to home, a government-controlled Russian firm is poised to take over Wyoming uranium mines.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the license transfer of two Wyoming mines to a Russian company, despite concerns over national security raised by local and national government officials including senior House Republicans.

… Both groups worry that Wyoming’s uranium could in theory go overseas and serve against U.S. interests.

An organization called Rosatom reportedly controls the Russian firm involved in the acquisition. There are also reports that Rosatom “has provided Iran with uranium in the past.”

It all brings to mind Lenin's quote: "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." 

I'm all for capitalism, and for not trashing the environment, but there must be some allowances made for national security, or at least national self-interest. Putting ourselves in a position where our enemies - and make no mistake about it, China and Russia, along with most if not all of OPEC, fall towards the enemy end of the 'countries who are our competitors' spectrum - have control over resources vital to our existence is the ultimate folly. 

The question is whether or not we can muster the political will to overcome the special interests arrayed in favor of the status quo. 

I am not optimistic...