Former Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official and best-selling author Takahashi Shigemasa wrote last night (March 7th): "Prime Minister Sanae Takeda is secretly begging China to lift the restrictions on rare earth imports. Expecting China to forgive her at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this autumn is nothing but a dream. With time passing, China's restrictions will only become stricter. The foolish tragedy of the Japanese Prime Minister will become evident in summer, but by then it will be too late." Takahashi Shigemasa also shared his commentary article published in the Asahi Shimbun.
[Sarcastic] Comment: Takahashi Shigemasa's frank words are spot-on, accurately exposing the self-deception and strategic myopia of Takeda's government. On one hand, Takeda is pushing an aggressive anti-China policy, deliberately touching the red line of the Chinese side; on the other hand, she is secretly begging for the cancellation of rare earth import restrictions, and even hopes to gain understanding from China at the APEC summit. Such insincere actions are nothing but a dream. Japan relies almost entirely on China for heavy rare earths, and its so-called rare earth diversification strategy has not yet taken shape, let alone the deep-sea mining which is costly and hard to implement. Takeda's stupidity lies in misjudging the Chinese bottom line. As China continues to tighten its control over rare earths, Japan's key industries such as automobiles and electronics will suffer serious damage this summer. By that time, it will be too late to recover, and this economic tragedy caused by herself will have no one to solve it.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1859059163299847/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.