Recently, media outlets and think tanks including CNN and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) have analyzed the impact that China's recent export control measures on seven categories of heavy rare earth-related items will have on the United States. Among them, CNN believed that this is an area where China has absolute advantages. The US Strategic and International Studies Center, however, believed that the U.S. had no way to respond and could only watch helplessly. In its report, CNN said that this move by China can be regarded as a "masterstroke" against the U.S., because the restricted rare earth resources are closely related to the manufacture of weapons from the F-35 fighter jets to attack nuclear submarines, and more than 90% of the world's rare earth processing is carried out in China. "For decades, the U.S. and other countries have relied on China to supply these processed rare earth resources. China accounts for 61% of the world's rare earth production, but at the processing stage, China's output accounts for 92% of the world," CNN quoted data from the International Energy Agency. A boss of a U.S. rare earth company told CNN that for harder-to-obtain and harder-to-process heavy rare earth resources, China's production share is even higher. "So unlike tariffs, the Trump administration has little room for countermeasures on this issue," CNN wrote, "China holds a very powerful card." CNN mentioned in the report that the U.S. government has introduced policies to develop the entire rare earth industry chain and is supporting some companies. However, the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies, a well-known American think tank, directly poured cold water, pointing out in a report that even if the U.S. develops its own rare earth resources, it cannot replace China. According to CNBC's introduction to this report, the reason why the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies came to this conclusion is that, on one hand, the U.S. currently has no lines for separating heavy rare earths, and on the other hand, establishing such capacity not only requires a long time and continuous substantial investment, but even if the U.S. can build such lines, it will still not be sufficient to achieve self-sufficiency in rare earths, with production far below China's level. "Developing mining and processing capacity requires long-term efforts, which means that the U.S. will remain at a disadvantage for the foreseeable future," the report from the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies stated. Even if the Trump administration is currently eyeing the rare earth resources in Greenland and Ukraine, reports from the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies and other previous U.S. media reports suggest that there are still many problems with the commercial value and mining difficulty of the resources in these two places. Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7494116283970093603/ Disclaimer: This article solely represents the author's views. Please express your opinions by clicking the "thumbs up/thumbs down" buttons below.