A senior Chinese trade official yesterday denied the country’s policies on rare earths constituted cartel-like behavior and insisted shipments of the materials to Japan were never blocked.
Rare earths — a group of 17 elements — are used in high-tech products ranging from flat-screen televisions to lasers to hybrid cars, and China controls more than 95 percent of the global market.
However, Jiang Fan (江帆), vice director-general of the commerce ministry’s foreign trade department, insisted that the companies involved in the trade — not Beijing — were setting the prices.
“They are deciding the price according to the market and the Chinese government cannot control this,” she said during a two-day rare earths industry conference in Xiamen.
The father of China’s economic reforms, Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), once compared China’s rare earths to the Middle East’s oil, and critics increasingly accuse Beijing of emulating the 12-member OPEC cartel.
China has cut rare earth exports by between 5 percent and 10 percent a year since 2006 as demand and prices soar.
The official China Daily newspaper reported yesterday the country would again cut rare earth export quotas by up to 30 percent next year to protect the metals from over-exploitation, citing an unnamed commerce ministry official.
Jiang said she was not aware of any new export quota decision and Xu Xu (徐旭), the chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters called the report “nonsense.”
However, both officials echoed concerns that rare earths reserves could run dry within the next two decades if production remained at current levels.
“Rare earths are not only limited in terms of exports, but also in terms of mining and production — this is for environmental protection and to protect the materials,” Jiang said.
She dismissed suggestions that export cuts were aimed at encouraging foreign firms to move -manufacturing to China.
Jiang also denied Japan’s charge that China’s rare earth shipments to its neighbor stopped last month in a bitter row — the worst in years between the two countries.
“No, never,” she said, laughing when asked about the allegations. “You can see the figures from China customs.”
Japan, however, insists that Beijing is still restricting exports amid ongoing political tensions and said yesterday it was seeking talks on the issue.
“I’ve instructed officials to set up talks with China. Once they’re ready, I want them to get our vice minister in touch with the Chinese counterpart,” Japanese Trade Minister Akihiro Ohata said.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS