After over one year of ups and downs with Google's blogger, my loyalty to the tech giant is slowly fading as its service remains blocked in The People's Republic of China.
Adding insult to injury is this new limit on the number of tags / labels you can use when posting.
Please visit http://chinasouthamerica.com/home to access all the content you see here on ChinaSouthAmerica and for future updates.
Thank you,
Benito
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
China and rare earth metals
The Economist has just published a new article about China’s abundant and ever more precious rare earth metals. This adds to a flurry or articles, which have recently made it into major English language publications here in the US and Canada—including the Wall Street Journal, Market Watch and Business Week-Canada.
The value of global rare-earth trade last year was just $1.25 billion, and it is projected to grow to about $3 billion by 2015—not much by most accords. However, the metals in question are absolutely essential for many high tech industries because of their phosphorescent and magnetic properties.
Rare earth metals include terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, lutetium, neodymium, europium, cerium, and lanthanum. These metals, as described by The Columbia Encyclopedia usually occur together in minerals as their oxides ( rare earths ) and are somewhat difficult to separate because of their chemical similarity.
The state-controlled Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Company dominates production of “rare earth metals” in China. Alistair Stephens of Arafura Resources in Australia, explains, “the Chinese realized the strategic importance of rare earths decades before the West.”
Producing the latest flat screen TV’s, smart phones, wine turbines, solar panels and even electric batteries which power America’s new Chevy Volt (battery powered car), are all simply not possible without these rare earth metals.
I am not one to doubt the incredible potential of the free market system, but in this particular situation, Deng Xiaoping was wise not to trust in the free market to dictate his “rare earth metals” policy in the 80’s.
As commodity prices fell in the mid 80’s, rare earth producers in the United States and Canada were priced out of the market. Deng Xiaoping, the man associated with introducing markets in China, instead encouraged the development of mines in the mid-1980s as prices fell dramatically.
Rare earth metals may not generate as much revenue as oil does for Saudi Arabia or Russia, but it is clear if China chokes off supply and begins consuming more of their rare earth metals domestically, the developed world will need to find new sources.
Additional articles on rare earth metals:
Will China Tighten 'Rare Earth' Grip? - The Wall Street Journal
Rare earths are vital; and China owns them all - Market Watch
Rare-earth metals: The new China syndrome - The Canadian Business Week
The value of global rare-earth trade last year was just $1.25 billion, and it is projected to grow to about $3 billion by 2015—not much by most accords. However, the metals in question are absolutely essential for many high tech industries because of their phosphorescent and magnetic properties.
Rare earth metals include terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, lutetium, neodymium, europium, cerium, and lanthanum. These metals, as described by The Columbia Encyclopedia usually occur together in minerals as their oxides ( rare earths ) and are somewhat difficult to separate because of their chemical similarity.
The state-controlled Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Company dominates production of “rare earth metals” in China. Alistair Stephens of Arafura Resources in Australia, explains, “the Chinese realized the strategic importance of rare earths decades before the West.”
Producing the latest flat screen TV’s, smart phones, wine turbines, solar panels and even electric batteries which power America’s new Chevy Volt (battery powered car), are all simply not possible without these rare earth metals.
I am not one to doubt the incredible potential of the free market system, but in this particular situation, Deng Xiaoping was wise not to trust in the free market to dictate his “rare earth metals” policy in the 80’s.
As commodity prices fell in the mid 80’s, rare earth producers in the United States and Canada were priced out of the market. Deng Xiaoping, the man associated with introducing markets in China, instead encouraged the development of mines in the mid-1980s as prices fell dramatically.
Rare earth metals may not generate as much revenue as oil does for Saudi Arabia or Russia, but it is clear if China chokes off supply and begins consuming more of their rare earth metals domestically, the developed world will need to find new sources.
Additional articles on rare earth metals:
Will China Tighten 'Rare Earth' Grip? - The Wall Street Journal
Rare earths are vital; and China owns them all - Market Watch
Rare-earth metals: The new China syndrome - The Canadian Business Week
Saturday, October 10, 2009
China South America is moving ---
After over one year of ups and downs with Google's blogger, my loyalty to the tech giant is slowly fading as its service remains blocked in The People's Republic of China.
Adding insult to injury is this new limit on the number of tags / labels you can use when posting.
Please visit http://chinasouthamerica.com/home to access all the content you see here on ChinaSouthAmerica and for future updates.
Thank you,
Benito
Peruvian Micro-Entrepreneurs head to China
It’s been awhile since CSA last ventured into the world of MicroFinance. Well today some news caught my attention.
About sixteen Peruvian Micro-Entrepreneurs (if that’s the correct term to call them) from various sectors will travel to Guangzhou, China to participate in the 106th Guangzhou Import and Export fair. With a total of 209 countries in attendance, and thousands of exhibitors, this is a big deal for these small Peruvian businesses.
I question if these business are truly worthy of being called the products of micro-finance. I hope that they are, but my gut is telling me it’s quite possible corruption and classic South American favoritism probably led the Peruvian government to carefully handpick a few to send to China.
Ministra de la Producción, Mercedes Aráoz, inauguró Feria de Beneficiosy Oportunidades de Foncopés en IPAE. Foto: ANDINA/Norman Córdova.
On the other hand, if they are truly small micro-enterprises which earned this trip to China through participating in a micro-finance program of some sort, this would be a case and point example of the potential of micro-finance institutions to empower the poor with the tools they need to succeed.
If you can read Spanish please click here to access the article which served the basis for this post.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Al-Qaeda declares holy war on China over repression of Uighurs
According to this Bloomberg article, Abu Yahya al-Libi, the alleged successor to Osama Bin Laden has declared a holy war against the Chinese state for its repression of its Uighur.
Abu Yahya al-Libi has been quoted saying:
"The state of atheism is heading to its fall.”
"China will suffer the same fate as the “Russian bear.”
How China is going to deal with this new threat remains to be seen. Also, how Abu Yahya al-Libi plans to wage this holy war is far from clear. Foreign policy buffs describe some obvious concerns such as the growth of the Xinjiang-based East Turkistan Islamic Movement, which is based in the Taliban-rules areas of Pakistan.
This declaration of sorts comes on the heels of The July riots in the capital of Xinjiang which were the deadliest in China in decades. Bloomberg writes, "Al-Libi’s speech, entitled 'East Turkistan, the Forgotten Wound,' echoed complaints of the Uighurs that decades of government-sponsored migration to the province is making them a minority in their homeland."
Personally, this blogger feels a threat such as a Pakistan based, anti-Chinese (Han) movement is not a major problem in the short-term, but it will no less force China to become more involved over the future of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
All eyes will be watching next week when members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization meet in Shanghai to discuss regional issues. This group includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Xinjiang, or East Turkistan, as many in the Muslim world refer to it lies at the heart of this grouping of Central Asian countries.
Click here to access Bloomberg's article on this topic
Abu Yahya al-Libi has been quoted saying:
"The state of atheism is heading to its fall.”
"China will suffer the same fate as the “Russian bear.”
How China is going to deal with this new threat remains to be seen. Also, how Abu Yahya al-Libi plans to wage this holy war is far from clear. Foreign policy buffs describe some obvious concerns such as the growth of the Xinjiang-based East Turkistan Islamic Movement, which is based in the Taliban-rules areas of Pakistan.
This declaration of sorts comes on the heels of The July riots in the capital of Xinjiang which were the deadliest in China in decades. Bloomberg writes, "Al-Libi’s speech, entitled 'East Turkistan, the Forgotten Wound,' echoed complaints of the Uighurs that decades of government-sponsored migration to the province is making them a minority in their homeland."
Personally, this blogger feels a threat such as a Pakistan based, anti-Chinese (Han) movement is not a major problem in the short-term, but it will no less force China to become more involved over the future of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
All eyes will be watching next week when members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization meet in Shanghai to discuss regional issues. This group includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Xinjiang, or East Turkistan, as many in the Muslim world refer to it lies at the heart of this grouping of Central Asian countries.
Click here to access Bloomberg's article on this topic
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