What if China corners the cobalt market?

Re:What if China corners the cobalt market? by crdoconnor on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @03:07PM (#16691761)

The resource vulnerabilities are nothing compared to US reliance on China's industrial ecosystem.

At this point if the the US and China halted trade, China would lose soybeans and corn (easily replaceable) while half the US manufacturing supply chains would be severed leading to truly eye watering inflation.

China will almost certainly threaten to use this leverage in the next 5 years to discipline the US.

Which is weird, because this is basically how the US has behaved toward developing nations which didn't follow its dictates.

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Re:What if China corners the cobalt market? by fspeech on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @03:21AM (#16696046)

Unless China can discipline its other trade partners, it can not effectively block export to the US. This is why over the years there is only US export control against China, not the other way around.

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Re:What if China corners the cobalt market? by question_that on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @03:48PM (#16692115)

I've never understood why during my lifetime my government has allowed our economy to come to depend on a communist country which is now effectively a dictatorship.

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Re:What if China corners the cobalt market? by mistermann on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @11:03AM (#16698205)

Me too.....I also don't understand why our club is such a tiny one, while other clubs worrying about comparatively minor risks (scary Russian Hackers!) are so popular.

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Re:What if China corners the cobalt market? by StreamBright on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @06:55PM (#16693584)

Because your government represent corporate interests much more than it represents you. (See Princeton study for more)

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