Once again China trying to assert "ownership" of Asia while using rare earth as a knife to the worlds throat It will not work much longer

The arrest of another Chinese skipper last year caused a high-level spat between the two countries. The latest incident took place about 100 miles (60km) from the Goto Islands on Sunday. The islands lie off the west coast of Nagasaki prefecture in the southern island of Kyushu.
Beijing suspended ministerial-level meetings and, according to trading companies in Tokyo, blocked exports of rare earths, vital for high-tech manufacturing in Japan. The latest incident took place well within Japanese territorial waters. Last year's took place near the Senkaku Islands, which Japan controls but China claims and calls the Diaoyu Islands.

We have been discussing increased tensions due to ownership claims over long disputed islands and unrecovered raw material riches below the east and South China Seas for years. China is embroiled in territorial disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei Japan, and India:

China has been making all these ownership claims while warning other Asian countries to stay away. Meanwhile they have supposedly been building their world war machine with "innocent" intentions. China accuses Japan of exaggerating it as a military threat: It is no exaggeration it is called truth and you better be concerned and China calls weapons modernization drive warnings alarmist "cock-and-bull story. Also US senators warn Beijing on South China Sea, China warns US to stay out of it

All this to no avail as China's answer is always that her intentions are innocent "yeah like Hitler's military buildup prior to WW2" and threatening the modern world with withholding rare earth elements needed to drive all our modern weapons and electronic.. China says it has largely shut down its rare earth industry for three months to address pollution problems. By invoking environmental concerns, China could potentially try to circumvent international trade rules that are supposed to prohibit export restrictions of vital materials. China has been imposing tariffs and quotas on its rare earth exports for several years, curtailing global supplies and forcing prices to rise eightfold to forty fold during that period for the various 17 rare earth elements.

China is worried about pollution like a hole in the head gut they better make the most of the game while they can because the world is going around their rare earth monopoly. Japanese researchers say they have discovered vast deposits of rare earth minerals, used in many hi-tech appliances, in the seabed. The geologists estimate that there are about a 100bn tons of the rare elements in the mud of the Pacific Ocean floor. At present, China produces 97% of the world's rare earth metals. Analysts say the Pacific discovery could challenge China's dominance, if recovering the minerals from the seabed proves commercially viable.

The United States is also in the race in an old proven uranium mine in Alaska. Eight mining companies had held claims on Bokan Mountain before McKenzie came, and all had closed. They were looking for uranium, and most cleared out before they ever sold an ounce of ore. Theirs was poor luck and poor timing. Based on a resource assessment performed for McKenzie’s company Ucore by Aurora Geosciences, Bokan may contain mineral deposits worth $6.5 billion. That figure is not for uranium, though, but a group of elements called rare earths. Rare earths are crucial to modern and developing technologies but were little discussed until a temporary embargo in 2010 by China, which produces about 97 percent of the world’s supply, sparked a global prospecting frenzy.

We must all stop playing these games at this point and like it or not "share" if we are to survive into the future. Sadly we know the powers to be are not smart enough to do that. We are already in severe trouble with the condition of the world environmentally and due to power struggles getting ready to erupt in the Middle East and make things horrifically worse in many regards.

Being in a superior position puts one in a unique position of power and that power must be handled gracefully, with humility, responsibly, and not abused. That is something I taught all my sons and America under Bush did a lousy job of handling.

I am a little worried that China too is getting a little too heavy handed and abusive with her new position of power and beginning to take what she wants instead of being content with what she has which is what I constantly lecture has to be the case if we are to have a future. The time when man and the planet could handle war and colonialism is over, period or else!

We are Taiwan's, the Philippines, and Japan's protectors and now Vietnam's. Vietnam is no real threat to China so what is up here? As China flex's their military muscles in the area we are not supposed to worry. Just what are we supposed to think they are going to do with their advanced weaponry, missiles, stealth aircraft, aircraft carriers and the like.

Their threats are going to become more ominous until they cannot be ignored and it is too late. We have been here before. The world was not supposed to worry as Hitler built his arsenal and we know how that turned out. If peace is truly the goal then try something unique and share the wealth. We need peace to succeed as a world into the 21st century not more and never ending war.

It is time for lets make a deal!

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com