diddyriddick
Staff Sergeant
Historic enmity between China and Japan heats up.
World Blog - Historic enmity between China and Japan heats up
World Blog - Historic enmity between China and Japan heats up
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Had not heard about it either. Either country could muster a million man army in a heartbeat.... so it could get very
ugly. Russia would back China, and the US would back Japan, and it would be "here we go again".
Charles
There was reconciliation, TEC , before Mao Zedong took power.
Thanks for sharing your good experience in Russia and China.
China is starting to throw its weight about in economic matters as well as political. Nearly all modern electronics from cruise missiles to laptops and optics, use substances called rare earth materials. China over the last 20 years has built up a near monopoly by undercutting the price forcing other companies out of business. The USA closed its last mine around 5 years ago.
About a month ago they cut exports to the rest of the world by 71% citing the environmental damage done by the ore extraction and their own need. Companies would only get the materials they need if they relocate their high tech factories and reasearch labs to China and Japan seems to be the first country to feel the pinch.
To give you some idea the material costs approx $800,000 a ton.
I suspect this type of dispute has some way to go.
tailend, you are correct the "rare earth metals" (earth is an old term for an ore) comprise the lanthanides and actinides. the actinides are radioactive like uranium or thorium and most are man-made. so the term rare earth applies to the lanthanides, 14 elements whose chemical and physical properties are almost identical to the element lanthanum. such an ore would be a mixture of several lanthanides and the identicalness of properties make separation very very difficult and expensive. thus it is a pure sample of one of these elements that is rare and expensive
China did not claim the islands till 1970 when the possibility of the offshore oil field around there was pointed out.
Their old maps and documents show they were recognizing the islands belonging to Japan.
As TEC points out, the rare earth metals are not rare.
A few years for development looks short.
Sounds about right. Century old claims all of the sudden pop up when somebody thinks there's money to be made.
As far as I could make out the Chinese make a claim to any land that uses "chinese" characters as a language.
As far as I could make out the Chinese make a claim to any land that uses "chinese" characters as a language.
You betThey can claim the restaurant around the corner then