Gedra

Bring your glory.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Here's a question I know many are wondering about: why did China wait until now to use rare earths as leverage against the US? Why not in the first Trump administration when the US started the trade hostilities? Or when the Biden administration unleashed the chips export controls 3 years ago?

I just watched a fascinating explanation by a Chinese analyst and, unexpectedly, a big part of the explanation is... helium.

I had no idea but as he explains (source here: https://t.co/eUbbU5QIHW), all the way until 2022 China imported 95% of its helium and most of it was controlled by the US. Of the world's ten largest helium producers, four were American companies, and the remaining six all used American technology.

Helium isn't just a party balloons gas: it has plenty of industrial applications for things such as quantum computing, rocket technology, MRI machines, as a coolant for chip lithography equipment, etc.

In a nutshell what he's explaining is that with helium the US had an even stronger card to play if China ever used the rare earths card.

This raised huge alarm bells inside China. In an article published in late 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science (https://t.co/eZhyv438LK), several researchers from PetroChina’s Beijing-based Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development stressed that China would be greatly affected if the US imposed a “stranglehold” blockade on helium exports.

So over the past few years there were gigantic efforts in China to break the "helium shackles," with seven helium extraction facilities going into production, and China also switching imports from the US in favor of imports from friendly countries like Russia.

China's research ecosystem also went into overdrive to find solutions to the helium dependency issues, with China's Academy of Sciences awarding its annual 2024 "Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize" to a new helium extraction technology project (https://t.co/eWs163mfaO) because "these scientific and engineering achievements broke the long-standing monopoly of the US and ensured the security of China's helium resources" (https://t.co/d7YquWKFGS)

The result: by the end of 2024 China had cut its helium dependence on the US to less than 5% (https://t.co/wOxm8VRZJj). The "helium shackles" were broken.

That's what most people don't realize: power isn't about intentions or rhetoric - it's about what you can actually do. Many wonder why countries almost never retaliate when the US imposes sanctions or export controls. The answer is simple: they can't. They lack the alternatives, the technology, the supply chains.

China is the first country that systematically worked to eliminate every single pressure point, with humongous efforts. It's not just helium: it's chips, energy, telecommunication, pharmaceuticals, etc.

That's why the rare earth card can finally be played now. Not because China suddenly became aggressive, but because they have developed the capabilities to say "no."

Last word: as a European, this is both depressing and inspiring. Depressing because it highlights the immense magnitude of the task at hand to become genuinely sovereign and develop our own capabilities to say "no." Inspiring because China demonstrated that it can actually be done, and relatively fast if we execute competently. Although with the current crop of folks at the helm in Europe, that last part is admittedly a very, very big "if"...

[Zachary Foster @_ZachFoster]

This @BarackObama tweet will be taught in genocide studies courses as a case study of what dehumanization looks like.

[Mohamed Salah @MoSalah]

How about we celebrate the great signings without disrespecting the PL champions?

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

Nunez, Nunez, Nunez! ✊📸

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

This entire thing is fake. There is no furor. The backlash to the fake furor is, unto itself, a grift — it’s a fake furor about a fake furor. It’s all bullshit. It’s a celebrity in an ad. People like Piers Morgan should be using their platforms to talk about things that are real.

[Michael Tracey @mtracey]

Zero GOP co-sponsors on Thomas Massie's war powers resolution re: Iran

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

With this use of "we," along with the other multiple deranged tweets today issuing decrees to Iran about what the US will do if they don't surrender, I assume we can all dispense with the myth that this isn't a new Israel/US war?

Be for or against it, but just be honest:🇮🇱🇺🇸

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

Cuomo quietly passed a law shielded nursing home corporations and their CEOs from COVID victims families' lawsuits - as his political machine raked in $2 million from the hospital/nursing home lobby.

Now, voters may reward him by making him their mayor.
https://t.co/moAFaIvtK8

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

If Trump had wanted to stop the Israeli attack on Iran, he could have easily. Israel depends on money from US workers, bombs from US stockpiles, and promises of US military protection.

Impossible to imagine Israel doing this without clear expectation of US military protection:

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

my grand unifying theory is that we’re living thru the result of oligarchs turning the GOP into an authoritarian culture war that distracts from the class war & libs turning the Dem Party into an identitarian brunch club uninterested in the economic struggles of the working class

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

https://t.co/RPaqfeOaN0

[Tom Morello @tmorello]

Womp womp

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Living in past eras.

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

A recent RAND study found that $79 trillion was effectively stolen from the bottom 90% of income earners.

We don’t lack abundance.

We have an oligarchy problem — the oligarchs are hoarding the abundance for themselves. https://t.co/RPaqfeNCXs

[Anonymous @YourAnonNews]

This is the biggest pump and dump scheme in the history of the world.

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

there should be some sort of middle ground between MAGA’s “all experts are idiots” and liberals’ “please show me your corporate credential, your elite media lanyard & your Ivy League post-secondary degree before I consider listening to you”

[Sami Zayn @SamiZayn]

One day everyone will have always been against this

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

The RAND Corporation’s new report finds that $79 trillion was taken from the bottom 90% of households.

So the problem isn’t a lack of “abundance” — it is the abundance being hoarded by the rich.

But that fact isn’t allowed in The Abundance Discourse.

https://t.co/rOvuN09BZ8