African Miners Shot By Chinese Overseers.

[Big Orange]

An unfortunate incident has kicked off between the local African serfs and defacto Chinese colonists in Zambia:

Zambian miners shot by Chinese managers
A backlash against China's powerful presence in the Zambian economy has been triggered by an incident in which 11 miners were shot by Chinese managers.

Police said that the Chinese executives opened fire on workers protesting against poor pay and conditions at the Collum coal mine in the southern Sinazongwe province on Friday.

Eleven people were admitted to hospital with wounds to the stomachs, hands and legs, and two are understood to remain in a critical condition.

A Foreign Ministry official in Beijing said that the shooting was a "mistake" but the incident has fuelled demands to curb China's overwheening position in mine investments.

The Patriotic Front, a leading opposition party, is campaigning for elections next year on platform of restricting Chinese investment until conditions are improved.

"We know we can't be protected by this government because it has been heavily corrupted by the Chinese for the 2011 elections and the current by-elections," said Michel Sata, the PF's leader nicknamed King Cobra for his combatative stance.

Madinda Siamubotu, a victim of the shooting said the miners had been told that they would not be paid for days when they had been ordered to stop mining because enough coal had been produced.

He said that when workers gathered outside the gates of the mine to protest at the unexpected pay cut, the managers walked out of their offices with shotguns and opened fire.

A witness to the incident said miners had thrown rocks before the shooting started.

Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) president Rayford Mbulu said the latest incident illustrated the reckless disregard for employee at Chinese facilities.

"We don't care what investments people bring in the country," he said. "Workers should be protected.

We want to be informed that these suspects have been brought to book. They should leave our country."

Xiao Li Shan, 48, and Wu Jiu Hua, 46, both supervisors at the Collum Coal Mine, appeared briefly in court yesterday charged with attempted murder and were remanded in custody.

China invested more than £250m in its mining industry last year, as well as providing funds to improve the country's infrastructure. and reportedly helped the ruling party to get re-elected.

Its investment in Zambia is replicated all over Africa, where leaders have lauded China for its "no strings attached" approach to aid and investment.

Torygraph

And on a related note the People's Republic of China, miners of 95% of the world's rare earth elements, has cut off the flow of important ore to Japan, America, and Europe.

[Eulogy]

And on a related note the People's Republic of China, miners of 95% of the world's rare earth elements, has cut off the flow of important ore to Japan, America, and Europe.

Are they fucking insane? They are now pissing off a lot of countries (well, even more than they have done already), and killing their golden geese in the process. Who the hell do these shithead boil-lickers thinks BUYS their products in the first place?

Add to that their already well-known evil, and it'll only be a matter of time before everyone else bands together to squeeze these fucktards by their tiny balls. They might not care initially by say food exports being blocked in retaliation but when their people start fleeing the famine they brought about they won't have any more cogs to keep their everything going.

Fuck China.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Meh.. if you have been following the news, you would be hearing that China is throwing its clout everywhere, cutting rare earth exports to Japan in the middle of that island dispute.

If you ask me, China is doing a great job destroying their reputation and attempts to be perceived as a "responsible power". Responsible my arse.

[Dave]

Are they fucking insane? They are now pissing off a lot of countries (well, even more than they have done already), and killing their golden geese in the process. Who the hell do these shithead boil-lickers thinks BUYS their products in the first place?

Megacorporations whose entire product line depends on cheap Chinese raw material and labor? You can't just switch suppliers at the drop of a hat when you're that deeply tied to one country.

Add to that their already well-known evil, and it'll only be a matter of time before everyone else bands together to squeeze these fucktards by their tiny balls.

Money, money, money. No matter how "evil"* they may be, it's still cheaper to buy from China, and a large part of the market demands cheap goods.

*and I question how evil cutting off REE from international export is, given that China's domestic demand for REE is probably growing significantly.
As for shooting miners: this sounds like it was an individual company, not representative of China as a whole.

They might not care initially by say food exports being blocked in retaliation but when their people start fleeing the famine they brought about they won't have any more cogs to keep their military going.

Riots have been put down by force in the past. I'm not saying it's a moral way to deal with riots, just that it's what China has done and, like it or not, it (usually) works.
Also, China's military is for defense, not "force projection" offense. Why would anyone attack them anyway?

Fuck China.

Kinda hard to do when China is fucking us with an artificially-low pegged currency and cheap labor/resources.

[Eulogy]

Meh.. if you have been following the news, you would be hearing that China is throwing its clout everywhere, cutting rare earth exports to Japan in the middle of that island dispute.

If you ask me, China is doing a great job destroying their reputation and attempts to be perceived as a "responsible power". Responsible my arse.

Any PR stunt they try now and in the near future is stillborn thanks to shit like beating dogs to death in front of their owners, poisoning their milk, imprisoning dissidents and of course treating miners like shit. China is drowning in a flooding ship, a ship that they themselves repeatedly dashed against rocks, and blaming everyone else for the fact that they kept running into the same rocks over and over again.

[Bakustra]

Well done to China for upholding the principles of socialism. I salute this brave new effort to govern according to the wishes of labor by killing off laborers. I wonder just when they'll start bombing the strikers from the air.

That said:

And on a related note the People's Republic of China, miners of 95% of the world's rare earth elements, has cut off the flow of important ore to Japan, America, and Europe.

Are they fucking insane? They are now pissing off a lot of countries (well, even more than they have done already), and killing their golden geese in the process. Who the hell do these shithead boil-lickers thinks BUYS their products in the first place?

Add to that their already well-known evil, and it'll only be a matter of time before everyone else bands together to squeeze these fucktards by their tiny balls. They might not care initially by say food exports being blocked in retaliation but when their people start fleeing the famine they brought about they won't have any more cogs to keep their everything going.

Fuck China.

Hahahaha you're incredibly naive. This is just a maneuver to get people to back down from calling down the WTO. Earlier they were bitching about "Buy American" proposals in the US. This is pretty much a good sign, since China is trying to avoid that, rather than blithely disregarding the WTO. Nobody's going to seriously try and cut China off or any retributionist garbage like that. Bad for business. For that matter, I'm not sure what China's status is vise-a-vise food imports and exports.

Now, it may be that people will play hardball or whatever, but once an agreement is made, things will get right back to the status quo, China will keep subsidizing gang-rape and murder in the Sudan, and striking Zambians will still be shot in the name of socialism. At least they're not chopping hands and feet off. Quality progress!

[Bakustra]

GHETTO EDIT: Oh, the comments from Zambian newspapers are pretty sad. One in particular:

I am confused – the police went first to disperse the residents rather than arrest the perpertrators – are they crazy or is this story just poorly written?

Welcome to capitalism! You can check out any time you like, but you can't ever leave!

Another:

Whether the story is skewed or not, these chinese need to be arrested. How can they be having guns while negotiating for conditions of service? This is not their country and they must pack their bags and leave immediately if they are tired of working with Zambians.

Man, I think that disabusing Zambians of their silly notions of "collective bargaining" and "unionization" might just be too much of a headache for the Chinese government. Right? Right?

This is horrible.

[Eulogy]

Megacorporations whose entire product line depends on cheap Chinese raw material and labor? You can't just switch suppliers at the drop of a hat when you're that deeply tied to one country.

Guess whose fault is that? It'll be even worse when their governments counterembargo China, and start bitchsmacking companies that try to ignore the embargo. Rare earth is something that's used in almost every high-tech thing out there, don't forget.

Money, money, money. No matter how "evil"* they may be, it's still cheaper to buy from China, and a large part of the market demands cheap goods.

Goods which now got a fuckton more expensive since companies now have to find other sources of rare earth or circumvent China's embargo. Not to mention that China's trading partners can only bend so far before they push back.

*and I question how evil cutting off REE from international export is, given that China's domestic demand for REE is probably growing significantly.

Right. Because your country is the only country that matters.

As for shooting miners: this sounds like it was an individual company, not representative of China as a whole.

This is a country that slaughtered unarmed protesters over democracy. I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Riots have been put down by force in the past. I'm not saying it's a moral way to deal with riots, just that it's what China has done and, like it or not, it (usually) works.
Also, China's military is for defense, not "force projection" offense. Why would anyone attack them anyway?

See above. Also, people have a breaking point. They will only put up with shitty conditions for so long before they say fuck it. If protesting doesn't work, they'll find another way.

Kinda hard to do when China is fucking us with an artificially-low pegged currency and cheap labor/resources.

Did you even read the linked article?

The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further intensify already rising trade and currency tensions with the West.

China just made its shit, and the means to make them, much more expensive. Way to go, sport!

[Eulogy]

Hahahaha you're incredibly naive. This is just a maneuver to get people to back down from calling down the WTO. Earlier they were bitching about "Buy American" proposals in the US. This is pretty much a good sign, since China is trying to avoid that, rather than blithely disregarding the WTO. Nobody's going to seriously try and cut China off or any retributionist garbage like that. Bad for business. For that matter, I'm not sure what China's status is vise-a-vise food imports and exports.

Now, it may be that people will play hardball or whatever, but once an agreement is made, things will get right back to the status quo, China will keep subsidizing gang-rape and murder in the Sudan, and striking Zambians will still be shot in the name of socialism. At least they're not chopping hands and feet off. Quality progress!

Know what's bad for business? Denying your customers the goods they want and need. Rare earth is required for a lot of goods and the machines that make them, which you'd know if you read the article.

Reducing the amount of available rare earth to a motherfucking FIVE PERCENT is going to jack up prices across the board, genius. It'd be almost like trying to deny the USA access to oil; not giving countries things they NEED to keep afloat will invite counterattacks, no matter how much their corporations try to lobby or bribe them.

[Bakustra]

Hahahaha you're incredibly naive. This is just a maneuver to get people to back down from calling down the WTO. Earlier they were bitching about "Buy American" proposals in the US. This is pretty much a good sign, since China is trying to avoid that, rather than blithely disregarding the WTO. Nobody's going to seriously try and cut China off or any retributionist garbage like that. Bad for business. For that matter, I'm not sure what China's status is vise-a-vise food imports and exports.

Now, it may be that people will play hardball or whatever, but once an agreement is made, things will get right back to the status quo, China will keep subsidizing gang-rape and murder in the Sudan, and striking Zambians will still be shot in the name of socialism. At least they're not chopping hands and feet off. Quality progress!

Know what's bad for business? Denying your customers the goods they want and need. Rare earth is required for a lot of goods and the machines that make them, which you'd know if you read the article.

Reducing the amount of available rare earth to a motherfucking FIVE PERCENT is going to jack up prices across the board, genius. It'd be almost like trying to deny the USA access to oil; not giving countries things they NEED to keep afloat will invite counterattacks, no matter how much their corporations try to lobby or bribe them.

Are you seriously this dumb? China isn't embargoing sincerely, it's just using this as a bargaining chip to try and keep the First World from investigating them via the WTO. Nobody really wants the economic collapse that would ensue from a massive shortage of rare earths. I predict that a deal will be worked out. But I guess that this doesn't matter because "evil China", right?

[Eulogy]

Are you seriously this dumb? China isn't embargoing sincerely, it's just using this as a bargaining chip to try and keep the First World from investigating them via the WTO. Nobody really wants the economic collapse that would ensue from a massive shortage of rare earths. I predict that a deal will be worked out. But I guess that this doesn't matter because "evil China", right?

Where's your proof that such an investigation will really worry China? For fuck's sake, we had toys with lead imported from China, yet nobody batted an eye.

[Bakustra]

Are you seriously this dumb? China isn't embargoing sincerely, it's just using this as a bargaining chip to try and keep the First World from investigating them via the WTO. Nobody really wants the economic collapse that would ensue from a massive shortage of rare earths. I predict that a deal will be worked out. But I guess that this doesn't matter because "evil China", right?

Where's your proof that such an investigation will really worry China? For fuck's sake, we had toys with lead imported from China, yet nobody batted an eye.

Maybe because the WTO has some actual clout and could hurt their export industries, especially the green power industry that would be investigated for possibly illegal subsidization? Maybe because once this was announced, the Chinese government immediately attacked the US for our "Buy American" provisions and began their soft embargo against Japan afterwards? But clearly this is because Wen Jiabao and Hu Jintao are actually Zombie Mussolini and Vampire Franco, risen from the dead to wage war on freedom.

[Eulogy]

So in other words, China wants the US to make its unemployment problem worse, and make its unfair business practices increase everyone's unemployment, for obvious reasons. Yeah, that'll go over real well with the public.

[Dave]

Megacorporations whose entire product line depends on cheap Chinese raw material and labor? You can't just switch suppliers at the drop of a hat when you're that deeply tied to one country.

Guess whose fault is that? It'll be even worse when their governments counterembargo China, and start bitchsmacking companies that try to ignore the embargo. Rare earth is something that's used in almost every high-tech thing out there, don't forget.

Sure, the megacorps are forced to use China because the customers demand cheap stuff. My point, to answer your original one, was that China knows exactly who buys from them and that they can't switch. They can and do give the rest of the world the finger because the almighty <insert currency> gives companies very strong incentive to outsource to China anyway.

Money, money, money. No matter how "evil"* they may be, it's still cheaper to buy from China, and a large part of the market demands cheap goods.

Goods which now got a fuckton more expensive since companies now have to find other sources of rare earth or circumvent China's embargo. Not to mention that China's trading partners can only bend so far before they push back.

Uh, yes, but it takes time to switch suppliers or to different methods of production. In the meantime, China inducing artificial price shocks is a license to print money for them, not to mention a bargaining chip.

*and I question how evil cutting off REE from international export is, given that China's domestic demand for REE is probably growing significantly.

Right. Because your country is the only country that matters.

Which country are you talking about, and what makes you think I said only one country matters?
I have no numbers to back it up, but I'm saying that China's internal demand could be a legitimate reason to taper off exports. (If you want me to get numbers, I'll try.) Sure it sucks for the rest of the world, but when the domestic producers need REE supplies, it doesn't makes sense to ship it out when you can provide domestically. Now, does it look legitimate? No, not really.

As for shooting miners: this sounds like it was an individual company, not representative of China as a whole.

This is a country that slaughtered unarmed protesters over democracy. I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt.

I know about China's human rights record. But from reading the miners article, it sounded like a company thing, not a government thing.

Riots have been put down by force in the past. I'm not saying it's a moral way to deal with riots, just that it's what China has done and, like it or not, it (usually) works.
Also, China's military is for defense, not "force projection" offense. Why would anyone attack them anyway?

See above. Also, people have a breaking point. They will only put up with shitty conditions for so long before they say fuck it. If protesting doesn't work, they'll find another way.

I know, but that point hasn't happened yet, and I don't see why this relatively little incident would trigger a major revolt.

Kinda hard to do when China is fucking us with an artificially-low pegged currency and cheap labor/resources.

Did you even read the linked article?

Not closely until after you asked. I was talking about the country of China, not Chinese business operations in Zambia.

The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further intensify already rising trade and currency tensions with the West.

China just made its shit, and the means to make them, much more expensive. Way to go, sport!

Yes, but prior to that they had cheap labor and resources. Now that they have major US corporations tied to them, they can jack up the prices and screw US companies (and the US economy) over until the companies switch suppliers. It's a classic bait-and-switch.

[Chaotic Neutral]

Meh.. if you have been following the news, you would be hearing that China is throwing its clout everywhere, cutting rare earth exports to Japan in the middle of that island dispute.

If you ask me, China is doing a great job destroying their reputation and attempts to be perceived as a "responsible power". Responsible my arse.

Any PR stunt they try now and in the near future is stillborn thanks to shit like beating dogs to death in front of their owners, poisoning their milk, imprisoning dissidents and of course treating miners like shit. China is drowning in a flooding ship, a ship that they themselves repeatedly dashed against rocks, and blaming everyone else for the fact that they kept running into the same rocks over and over again.

What do you expect? China is a third world country and a dictatorship, they are run extremely well by those standards. They save money to invest elsewhere by "treating miners like shit", they keep themselves in power by jailing dissidents, and as for the milk poisoning, I believe the people who did that were put to death.

[Eulogy]

If the embargo continues then the corporations have to switch or go tits up, so your point is moot anyway, Dave. Besides, a stunt like this will give future and possible repeat customers cause to pause and think whether China is going to try to screw them over again, so its a bad thing for China to do in the long term (not that that's surprising).

And yes, China going "Fuck the rest of you, I've got mine!" IS evil. It's textbook sociopathy.

[K. A. Pital]

Meh.. if you have been following the news, you would be hearing that China is throwing its clout everywhere, cutting rare earth exports to Japan in the middle of that island dispute.

If you ask me, China is doing a great job destroying their reputation and attempts to be perceived as a "responsible power". Responsible my arse.

Any PR stunt they try now and in the near future is stillborn thanks to shit like beating dogs to death in front of their owners, poisoning their milk, imprisoning dissidents and of course treating miners like shit. China is drowning in a flooding ship, a ship that they themselves repeatedly dashed against rocks, and blaming everyone else for the fact that they kept running into the same rocks over and over again.

What do you expect? China is a third world country and a dictatorship, they are run extremely well by those standards. They save money to invest elsewhere by "treating miners like shit", they keep themselves in power by jailing dissidents, and as for the milk poisoning, I believe the people who did that were put to death.

China is no longer a Third World country. It's GDP/capita is already close to Second World during the 1990s, which means the life standard (and I can testify to that since I do live in China) is no longer corresponding to that of the Third World.

And yes, China going "Fuck the rest of you, I've got mine!" IS evil. It's textbook sociopathy.

Please. This holier-than-thou attitude is just ridiculous. A sovereign nation can do what it wants with its trade. The US has used trade so many times as political leverage that no fucktard in any First World nation has a right to bitch that a former Third World nation (which they fucked in the ass and then again during Opium Wars and other nice colonial excesses) suddenly has the gall to stand up to them all and say FUCK YOU loud and clear.

In a certain way I must say I always love it when Third World nations say FUCK YOU loud and clear to First World nations. Because the First World has been so indifferent, cruel and callous to these "lower people" during history that I get a sense of karmic justice overflowing me every time I hear a story like this.

[Chaotic Neutral]

China is no longer a Third World country. It's GDP/capita is already close to Second World during the 1990s, which means the life standard (and I can testify to that since I do live in China) is no longer corresponding to that of the Third World.

They are better run than I thought! That's the last time I underestimate China.

[Eulogy]

What do you expect? China is a third world country and a dictatorship, they are run extremely well by those standards. They save money to invest elsewhere by "treating miners like shit", they keep themselves in power by jailing dissidents, and as for the milk poisoning, I believe the people who did that were put to death.

A revolt, even a minor one, will cost money and time to put down, and that's if the company succeeds. Then they'll have to rebuild everything that got destroyed, and hire more people - oh wait, they killed the only people willing to work for them, oops!

What if the miners simply decide to look for work elsewhere? Don't laugh at this, pain and desperation can do funny things to a man.

[Sea Skimmer]

Know what's bad for business? Denying your customers the goods they want and need. Rare earth is required for a lot of goods and the machines that make them, which you'd know if you read the article.

Reducing the amount of available rare earth to a motherfucking FIVE PERCENT is going to jack up prices across the board, genius. It'd be almost like trying to deny the USA access to oil; not giving countries things they NEED to keep afloat will invite counterattacks, no matter how much their corporations try to lobby or bribe them.

The whole issue is overblown. The only reason China controls so much of the worlds supply is because it undercut the US and Canadian producers in the 1990s with low low prices, but now those North American mines are already in the process of being reopened. More then enough REEs exist in usable deposits in the rest of the world to meet demand. China has no innate monopoly.

China actually has legitimate reason to want to restrict exports. While the desire to force high technology manufacturing into China is obvious, the Chinese also know that supplying the whole world demand is rapidly exhausting Chinese mines. It’s also caused a huge wave of illegal mining which is generally very bad for the environment, as REEs are heavy metals mixed in with many other toxic and radioactive heavy metals. An illegal mine wont even bother dumping the waste in a big holding tank that might leak, it goes right into the water supply. Environmental regulations are the main reason why the US mines couldn’t compete, as large evaporation pans are required to get rid of all the liquid waste. Higher prices puts them back in the game and eliminates a glaring western strategic vulnerability. This is almost China doing the west a favor.

[AniThyng]

Know what's bad for business? Denying your customers the goods they want and need. Rare earth is required for a lot of goods and the machines that make them, which you'd know if you read the article.

Reducing the amount of available rare earth to a motherfucking FIVE PERCENT is going to jack up prices across the board, genius. It'd be almost like trying to deny the USA access to oil; not giving countries things they NEED to keep afloat will invite counterattacks, no matter how much their corporations try to lobby or bribe them.

The whole issue is overblown. The only reason China controls so much of the worlds supply is because it undercut the US and Canadian producers in the 1990s with low low prices, but now those North American mines are already in the process of being reopened. More then enough REEs exist in usable deposits in the rest of the world to meet demand. China has no innate monopoly.

China actually has legitimate reason to want to restrict exports. While the desire to force high technology manufacturing into China is obvious, the Chinese also know that supplying the whole world demand is rapidly exhausting Chinese mines. It’s also caused a huge wave of illegal mining which is generally very bad for the environment, as REEs are heavy metals mixed in with many other toxic and radioactive heavy metals. An illegal mine wont even bother dumping the waste in a big holding tank that might leak, it goes right into the water supply. Environmental regulations are the main reason why the US mines couldn’t compete, as large evaporation pans are required to get rid of all the liquid waste. Higher prices puts them back in the game and eliminates a glaring western strategic vulnerability. This is almost China doing the west a favor.

It's always refreshing to contrast the even handed response of Skimmer's reply here versus the screeching of the person he replied to.

That being said, if we're going to compare the actions of nation states to that of individuals ("socialpathy!" lol) I guess this really does make the USA the world's big bully...

[Jadeite]

So in other words, China wants the US to make its unemployment problem worse, and make its unfair business practices increase everyone's unemployment, for obvious reasons. Yeah, that'll go over real well with the public.

Why should the Chinese really care about what the American public thinks? Its not going to slow down consumption at all, and I'm sure that there are many products with no other alternative producers (or at least difficult to find), and any mass boycott of Chinese goods would hurt American companies as well. Not to mention the average American probably has no idea what rare earth elements even are, let alone why it should matter to them.

Frankly the only reason the article in the OP is newsworthy is that it wasn't us doing the killing for once. Stas put it exactly right, get over it. The US and other Western powers have no inherent rights to the resources of other nations.

[Eulogy]

Know what's bad for business? Denying your customers the goods they want and need. Rare earth is required for a lot of goods and the machines that make them, which you'd know if you read the article.

Reducing the amount of available rare earth to a motherfucking FIVE PERCENT is going to jack up prices across the board, genius. It'd be almost like trying to deny the USA access to oil; not giving countries things they NEED to keep afloat will invite counterattacks, no matter how much their corporations try to lobby or bribe them.

The whole issue is overblown. The only reason China controls so much of the worlds supply is because it undercut the US and Canadian producers in the 1990s with low low prices, but now those North American mines are already in the process of being reopened. More then enough REEs exist in usable deposits in the rest of the world to meet demand. China has no innate monopoly.

China actually has legitimate reason to want to restrict exports. While the desire to force high technology manufacturing into China is obvious, the Chinese also know that supplying the whole world demand is rapidly exhausting Chinese mines. It’s also caused a huge wave of illegal mining which is generally very bad for the environment, as REEs are heavy metals mixed in with many other toxic and radioactive heavy metals. An illegal mine wont even bother dumping the waste in a big holding tank that might leak, it goes right into the water supply. Environmental regulations are the main reason why the US mines couldn’t compete, as large evaporation pans are required to get rid of all the liquid waste. Higher prices puts them back in the game and eliminates a glaring western strategic vulnerability. This is almost China doing the west a favor.

Then why this song and dance? If China has legitmate reasons to shrink rare earth exports then why not simply say that their mines can't handle it, instead of kicking up their feet and possibly pissing people off?

[Eulogy]

So in other words, China wants the US to make its unemployment problem worse, and make its unfair business practices increase everyone's unemployment, for obvious reasons. Yeah, that'll go over real well with the public.

Why should the Chinese really care about what the American public thinks? Its not going to slow down consumption at all, and I'm sure that there are many products with no other alternative producers (or at least difficult to find), and any mass boycott of Chinese goods would hurt American companies as well. Not to mention the average American probably has no idea what rare earth elements even are, let alone why it should matter to them.

Frankly the only reason the article in the OP is newsworthy is that it wasn't us doing the killing for once. Stas put it exactly right, get over it. The US and other Western powers have no inherent rights to the resources of other nations.

Where did I say that the West should have inherent rights to foreign resources? I was pointing out that the embargo would have negative consequences for all involved.

[K. A. Pital]

Then why this song and dance? If China has legitmate reasons to shrink rare earth exports then why not simply say that their mines can't handle it, instead of kicking up their feet and possibly pissing people off?

Why should China care about First World nations or their touchy-feely soft-brained idiots who cry "EVIL CHINA" at the first moment? Kow-towing to idiot demands is the worst type of behaviour.

I was pointing out that the embargo would have negative consequences for all involved.

Except as Skimmer correctly noted, that is not so. And you did try to say that saying fuck off to the First World is some sort of evil behaviour. It's not. The First World is so rich than it can go and fuck itself anytime it likes.