Things That Make You Say "Hmmm"...

Sinclair links to this WSJ article on Chinese production and export of "rare earth" metals.

Read it all, but here is my fave section:

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...Over the past year, China has imposed global export quotas on the elements. Its Commerce Ministry has said total exports for the year would be capped at just under 30,300 metric tons, down 40% from last year. Only 7,976 tons of that were allocated for the second half of this year. Experts say much of that has already been shipped.

That has spurred anxiety among government officials and industry executives. Delegations from the U.S., Germany, and Japan have implored Beijing to recognize how critical they consider sustained supply...
***

Betcha all that imploring impressed history's most successful mass-murderers a whole bunch....

Nobody likes a beggar.

Think the Chinese have forgotten this?

Or this?

Put another way, the Chinese remember and are deeply ashamed about how the imperial powers of 1900 (including the US, Germany, and Japan) divided their country in the wake of the failed Boxer Rebellion.

Do you think our surviving descendants will have forgotten about the upcoming multi-player gang-rape of the former United States a mere 110 years after the fact?

For the answer to that question, ask our Southern brethren and sistren today about 1865 and "Reconstruction".