Sino-Japanese row over some rocky island

[Perrine]

I wonder if anyone here is paying attention to what's happening in the orient lately
It's kinda scary what China can do when it puts is weight on japan
For example China placed a ban on exporting rare earth materials to japan.
Expect the price of hybrid car batteries to go up

[Tac]

china's running low on rare earth minerals.. been that way for nearly 10 years now. That little island just gives them the excuse to try and landgrab plus lower their commitments to exporting those minerals.

[Meatwad]

Maybe china will start to lose its manufacturing after a while and it can be brought back here to the USA

[MORAY37]

I wonder if anyone here is paying attention to what's happening in the orient lately
It's kinda scary what China can do when it puts is weight on japan
For example China placed a ban on exporting rare earth materials to japan.
Expect the price of hybrid car batteries to go up

These things have happened for thousands of years.

Our limited time at the top is over, and China is ascending the ladder of influence, with a vacuum of power at the top right now.  China knows we are the only power that remains that can project any power in that hemisphere, but that we are financially and militarily stretched way too thin to do much about it.  Plus, we won't do jack because we owe them so much debt. If we did anything major, they would call in our debt and we would be immediately financially isolated and bankrupt.

 We made the dragon what it is today, and expect it to gobble up whatever it wishes for the next few decades. 

[Meatwad]

Blame that on CEO's and other money grubbing members of power that sent our jobs overseas to china

[MORAY37]

Blame that on CEO's and other money grubbing members of power that sent our jobs overseas to china

Hmmmm.  I'll lay the blame squarely at the American public, thank you. 

Wal-Mart is the single largest contributer to the national trade deficit, and it deals almost with exclusion to cheap-labor driven Chinese manufacture... I stopped spending money there 7 years ago because of it.  It's as anti-American as a company can be.  (Of course it's also as Capitalistic as a company can be, save for the part where it dictates what cost suppliers will sell to them.)

Bottom line, if the American consumer didn't flock to the cheapest crap of the moment, all of those jobs would have stayed in the country. Blaming the CEO's is convenient, but it is the general public that fueled those companies need to make everything as cheap as possible.  If Wal-Mart hadn't started buying goods from China with such wild abandon, they never would have grown past a niche market in the southeastern United States.

Every dollar spent at a Wal-Mart goes right out the window and lands in Beijing.

[Rolex]

Every dollar spent at a Wal-Mart goes right out the window and lands in Beijing.

I'd like to correct this misinformation before the thread gets locked. It's probably closer to five cents out of every dollar you spend at Walmart goes to a Chinese company.
Here's why:

1. Product costs run about 15% of sales for non-food goods at large retailers. Yes, that $100 thingie you bought cost about $15 from the manufacturer, but China does not produce everything sold at Walmart.
2. China is not a leading maker of clothing sold by Walmart.
3. China is the producer of very little food sold by Walmart. Walmart has a 35% share of the grocery industry.
4. China is not the maker of OTC and prescription drugs sold at Walmart. Walmart has a 25% share of the the drug industry.
5. China does not supply the employees (the biggest expense of any business), build the locations or sell the land the stores were built on. China does not ship the goods across the US, market the business or receive income from advertising on US TV, radio, newspapers and magazines or receive money from local, state and federal taxes paid by the company and employees.

Here's an interesting map of Chinese territorial claims. According to the Chinese, you're in their waters if you go for swim off the coast of Malaysia . . .  

[zack1234]

The Rare Earth were a band from the 70's

[SirFrancis]

china's running low on rare earth minerals.. been that way for nearly 10 years now. That little island just gives them the excuse to try and landgrab plus lower their commitments to exporting those minerals.

really? quote NYTimes: "China currently accounts for 93 percent of production of so-called rare earth elements — and more than 99 percent of the output for two of these elements, dysprosium and terbium, vital for a wide range of green energy technologies and military applications like missiles."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/global/01minerals.html

[Tac]

'Currently accounts' yes. They are the leading, major source in the world for those minerals. Like 98% of the world's supply is Chinese.

Their deposits are becoming exhausted and are not expected to last past 2050. That is why China will cease to export these minerals to the world by 2012.

Some new deposits have been found in California and a suspected 'massive' deposit found in Afghanistan earlier this year but neither will match Chinese output & already built infrastructure to mine it.

China isn't cutting back exports to make a killing on the market..they already dominate it completely. These minerals are not infinite and just like any other mine, it will run out. Their current big producing mines have been running nonstop for many decades.

[Babalonian]

Rolex pretty much showed the map that explains the situation.  Chinese and Japanese fishermen have been fighting over exclusive fishery rights over every square inch of ocean between China and Japan for thousands of years.  Each nation politicaly believes they have the exclusive right (combined with the simple fisherman's belief that any water you can float your boat on and catch fish out of to put on the table at home is fair game) to fish it from one coast to the other, even to this day.

Truth is that since they can't get together and get past argueing over where a line lays on a map, both nations will likely over fish the fisheries in the area someday real soon and both nations will then be down the same creek without a paddle.