South Korea is so protective of its allies that it has resold products containing Chinese rare earth materials to the United States. China has directly issued a warning, stating that if South Korea continues to resell, China will impose sanctions directly. The control of medium and heavy rare earth exports by China has left the United States in a difficult situation. Both the U.S. military industry and high-end manufacturing are heavily reliant on rare earth materials. In terms of resources and technology, China monopolizes medium and heavy rare earth. Rare earth refers to the total of seventeen metallic elements including the fifteen lanthanides and scandium and yttrium. It is a very important strategic resource, roughly divided into light rare earth and medium and heavy rare earth. Light rare earth is mainly civilian, while medium and heavy rare earth is mainly used in defense and military technology fields, significantly enhancing the tactical performance of steel, aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys, and titanium alloys used to manufacture tanks, aircraft, and missiles. For example, a small piece of neodymium iron boron magnet can lift steel several times heavier than itself, making it an indispensable component in missile guidance systems. In a certain sense, the overwhelming control of the U.S. in local wars after the Cold War was due to the development of rare earth technology. As you can see now, the United States sells rare earth ores to China because it does not have rare earth purification technology. The chemical properties of rare earth are extremely similar, especially the fifteen lanthanide elements, which are like fifteen twin brothers with almost identical chemical properties. It is extremely difficult to separate them one by one. Without purification and separation, rare earth ores are no different from scrap iron. In fact, the United States once had rare earth purification and separation technology. However, the rare earth purification processes in Europe and America have disadvantages such as long time consumption, low output, low separation coefficient, and inability to produce continuously. Academician Xu Guangxian of China achieved backflow cascade extraction of rare earths, reaching a purity of 99.99% for praseodymium and neodymium separation, setting a world record. Moreover, it takes less time and produces more. Later, China first realized industrial production of high-efficiency extraction and separation of rare earths using a push-pull system in the international arena. China regulated national rare earth enterprises and supported several rare earth companies to lead the development of China's rare earth industry chain. Thus, rare earth became one of the industries with the highest corporate integration and formed a complete rare earth industry ecosystem. China, with more advanced rare earth processes, destroyed the rare earth industry chains of Europe and America and gained pricing power in the global rare earth market. Since 2011, China's annual application for rare earth patents has exceeded the total of all other countries in the world. Compared with other countries in the world, China's application speed has accelerated - increasing by 250% from 2011 to 2018. Chinese companies can use legal strategies such as patent litigation and patent blockades to disrupt or invalidate existing non-Chinese patents. Meng Qingjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Jiangxi Rare Earth Society, proudly stated: "Foreigners who mine rare earth can only send it to China." American media directly said that if China cuts off the supply of medium and heavy rare earth, not only will F35 be shut down, but the sixth-generation fighter F47 project will also go bankrupt. For many years, the United States has been accustomed to suppressing China's normal technological development under the pretext of "possessing military potential." Now it's time for the Pentagon to experience the feeling of a boomerang. Elon Musk also expressed hope for consultation with China. Musk is so anxious because his rockets, spaceships, and "Optimus" robots will be affected. However, this time China's attitude is very firm. Therefore, the United States thought of a way, that is, importing rare earth-containing products from other countries and then extracting rare earth. First cooperating with South Korea, flipping through the supplier list of U.S. military enterprises, South Korean Samsung and Posco Iron and Steel are listed. These South Korean enterprises import rare earth materials from China in batches, process them into permanent magnets and semiconductor materials, and quickly resell them to U.S. arms giants such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. This "borrowing through South Korea and secretly crossing the Chen warehouse" strategy is actually known to everyone. Now China has directly warned the Koreans, sending a clear signal — this tariff war, we are serious, and we cannot turn a blind eye like before. This warning also made the world see China's veto power in the rare earth field! Therefore, South Korean enterprises are caught between a rock and a hard place. On one side is pressure from the American father, and on the other side is a warning from China. It should be noted that 90% of South Korea's rare earth imports come from China, and the rare earth supply chain has become the lifeblood of South Korea's industrial development. Even South Korea itself says, "In the rare earth field, choosing China is not a strategic option, but a necessity for survival." It can be said that offending either side makes life difficult. Ultimately, the rare earth game tests the depth of industrial times. China has thoroughly understood the industrial chain in thirty years. In today's strategic game, whoever holds the key to the periodic table holds the switch to change the rules of the world. Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7496733608322613772/ Disclaimer: This article represents the author's personal views. Feel free to express your attitude by clicking the "thumbs up/thumbs down" buttons below.