This is existential for Japan, they will not allow China to choke off the Japanese military and economy.*
Following on January 11's "Japan sets sail on rare earth hunt as China tightens supplies".From Bloomberg, February 2:
Japan is accelerating a decade-old plan to extract rare earths from the deep seabed, an ambitious initiative given extra impetus by the country’s drive to cut reliance on Chinese supply.
A state-owned vessel is scheduled to return to port this month after fitting equipment below the surface of Japanese waters, near a coral atoll 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) from Tokyo. The aim is to pull metal-bearing mud from the seabed for tests as early as February 2027, according to the government body running the project.
“It’s about economic security,” said Shoichi Ishii, program director for Japan’s National Platform for Innovative Ocean Developments. “The country needs to secure a supply chain of rare earths. However expensive they may be, the industry needs them.”
Rare earths — a set of metallic elements used in smartphones, electric vehicles and fighter jets — have become a political flashpoint, with China using its dominance of the global supply chain as a crucial bargaining chip in last year’s trade war with the US. More recently, Beijing banned exports to Japan of products destined for use in military applications, marking an escalation of a diplomatic spat between the countries.
Read More: Japan Seeks Support as Fears Rise Over China’s Rare Earth Grip
This is an issue for Japan. Despite spending heavily on securing alternative supplies — from investing in a separation facility in France to long-term financial backing for Australian miner Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. — the country still imports roughly 70% of its rare earths from China.
Mining the seabed will not solve this problem any time soon. Even if tests were to reveal a promising resource, cost and logistics would present major challenges to any potential developer. Large-scale commercial mining of metals from the seabed has never been achieved, despite widespread exploration.
The US — which hasn’t ratified a United Nations treaty that regulates deep-seabed mining in international waters — has moved to accelerate the approval process after President Donald Trump last year signed an executive order “unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources.” But the latest changes are likely to raise concerns globally, with the International Seabed Authority now finalizing its own rules governing environmental safeguards.
Japan’s project, however, lies within its own territorial waters – near Minamitori Island, which marks the country’s easternmost point. According to the Cabinet Office, the cross-ministerial body responsible for deep-sea mining, around 350 tons per day of mud will be brought to the surface from a depth of between 5 and 6 kilometers....
....MUCH MORE
*December 2021 - China and Japan: Thinking About President Xi and Prince Kanenaga
The long history of Chinese arrogance.
For 100 years, from the
Chinese/Mongol attempts to conquer Japan in 1274 and 1281 to the demands
of the founder of the Ming Dynasty from 1369 to 1382 that Japan pay
tribute.
A repost from December 2018.
Sometimes when thinking about what President Xi is up to Chairman Mao comes to mind. I mean with posts like:
- The Little Red Book vs. the Big White Book (Mao v. Xi)
- "China to require patriotism education for intellectuals " (and the rise of "Xi thought")
- In Xi We Trust: Inwardly Directed Chinese Propaganda (now with more elephants)
And then when President Trump tweets: "Relations with China have taken a BIG leap forward!" it's inescapable. or as they say in Hollywood, "A little too on the nose?"
There is however another Chinese
Upon gaining control in 1368, Hongwu ('Vastly Martial') began demanding tribute from all the surrounding lands, including Japan.
We mentioned this obliquely in 2014's Oil and China's Territorial Ambitions: "The World Is the World's World". Here is a better, more scholarly reference via Oxford Journals' Chinese Journal of International Politics, Summer 2012:
...The threat of military force was evident in Ming China’s effort to bring Japan into the tribute system. Japan’s Prince Kanenaga imprisoned and executed a number of the Chinese envoys that Emperor Hongwu had sent in 1369 to demand tribute, apparently angered at the condescending tone of the diplomatic letter denoting Chinese superiority. When the Ming court threatened invasion, the Japanese reminded it of the Mongols’ failed attempts in 1281 to conquer Japan. A letter Kanenaga sent in 1382 explicitly denied the legitimacy of Chinese dominance: ‘Now the world is the world’s world; it does not belong to a single ruler … . I hear that China has troops able to fight a war, but my small country also has plans of defence … . How could we kneel to and acknowledge Chinese overlordship!’88 ...
Jus' sayin' Mr. President Xi, jus' sayin'.
And that 2014 post:
Oil and China's Territorial Ambitions: "The World Is the World's World"
....The part of the headline in quotation marks is not to be found in
the story, rather it is from a 1382 letter sent by Japan’s Prince
Kanenaga to the Hongwu Emperor of China, founder of the Ming Dynasty,
explicitly denying the legitimacy of Chinese dominance:
Heaven and earth are vast, they are not monopolized by one ruler.For some reason I've never been able to get that quote out of my head but I promise that is as esoteric as I'll ever get.
The universe is great and wide, and the various countries are created each to have a share in its rule.
Now the world is the world's world; it does not belong to a single person.
Here's a ref. via Oxford Journals.
UPDATE: The Oxford Journals link to The Chinese Journal of International Politics is now gated with a stub entry.
If interested here is "Chinese Hegemony: Grand Strategy and International Institutions in East" with the quote and some background on what Prince Kanenaga was dealing with.
Quite an inspiring guy.
