Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s rare-earth squeeze on Japan is backfiring, pushing Tokyo and Washington to join forces to shield their economies and, an expert says, likely strike back.
“Xi is spurring the Japanese and the Americans to cooperate on ‘economic defense’ and probably even ‘economic offense’ against China,” Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine officer and former U.S. diplomat, told The Epoch Times.
“China will find that it is driving the free nations to decouple from China—and to greatly reduce or eliminate reliance on Chinese sources for materials of most importance.”
China accounts for roughly 70 percent of global rare earth mining production and controls nearly 90 percent of the world’s refining and processing capacity….