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This is not the first time they "forced our hand".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earths_trade_dispute

Either were not actually that bothered by the restriction and are using this to gin up conflict, or we've been this incompetent at responding to existential threats for over a decade and a half, including multiple presidents, both parties holding power, and this current admin's first term.

I am not really excited about either situation.

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It could be both.

Thank you for letting me know that no matter how bad it is, it can always get worse.

Ha.

I think the bigger problem than the military is probably the nascent EV industry here. It must use orders of magnitude more of them than the defense industry, which can surely source them indirectly much the way China is still getting the chips we have export controls on.

I doubt they can kill our missile production no matter what they do but they can probably kill Tesla.

That could be China's real motivation as well, they have BYD and Xiaomi with a good shot at outcompeting the US globally in EVs.

It’s probably a major factor. Also, it’s great way to hammer back at the sanctions we already put in place.

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