Chinese Military Build Up - 60 minutes this Sunday

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by My poor XF

They would be more of threat purely thanks to there geographic location and population size. And I doubt that su-27's and su-30's and the f16's they have were donated by Australia.

The f-16s they operate are now well outdated and just as old as our hornets.
They dont have much range either.

The SU series are less then 12 in service I think from memory. These aircraft do have a substancial range and are world class fighters. However with such small numbers they are hardly a worry.

[zdcol71]

A little late for this, but I have just read an interesting article that should ease, or strengthen(depending on ones perspective) any concerns about China ever invading us.
Since 2005 Bejing has been restricting the output, and exports of its rare earth metals. Last year China produced 97% of the worlds rare earth oxides, which go into production of a whole range of components for things like sattelites, radar equipment, laser,avionics, night vision,etc etc. By some estimates, demand for rare earth metals will have outstripped supply by 50,000 tons by 2012.
Much more, and more detail in an article in todays Financial Revue,worth reading for insight into this issue and why the rest of the world has actually come to rely upon Chinas supply.

[zdcol71]

China's rare earths diplomacy threatens West

Michael Richardson

"The US and other rich countries erred in allowing themselves to become dependent on China, writes Michael Richardson.
In the race to build advanced industrial and military products, China has a key advantage: the world's biggest reserves of rare-earth minerals essential to many of these products. China dominates mining of the obscure but strategically vital rare-earth elements used in an increasing array of commercial and defence applications, ranging from batteries, magnets and electric motors to satellites, lasers and precision-guided munitions.
In the past few days, China appears to have demonstrated for the first time the political and economic leverage given by its domination of the market.
The New York Times reported last week that China had banned exports of rare earths to Japan after Tokyo detained a Chinese trawler captain in a bitter dispute between Asia's two top economies over the ownership of islands and valuable fisheries and seabed energy resources in the East China Sea.
China denied it was restricting sales to Japan, but Japanese Trade Minister Akihiro Ohata said on Friday that initial information indicated they had been banned and that Tokyo might file a complaint with the World Trade Organisation.
China's reported ban has sent shockwaves through defence and commercial industries around the world. Last year China produced about 97 per cent of the world's rare-earth oxides. Just as important, Chinese companies, many of them state-controlled, aim to make China the world leader in processing rare-earth metals into finished materials.
This growing stranglehold alarms the United States, Japan, the European Union and other major economies that depend on supplies from China. Since 2005, Beijing has been restricting output and exports, pushing prices higher. Some of the main rare-earth oxides have more than doubled in price since 2008.
Australia, too, has taken note of the dangers of strategic dependence on China. Last September, the Foreign Investment Review Board blocked a bid by a state-owned Chinese company to take control of West Australian rare-earth miner Lynas, evidently on national security grounds. Lynas owns one of the world's richest undeveloped deposits of rare-earth minerals. The company says the find at Mount Weld, near laverton, could supply up to 20 per cent of the world market for 30 years.
The Pentagon is due to finish a report this month on the risks of US military dependence on rare-earth elements from China. Their use is widespread in the defence systems of the US, its allies including Australia, and other countries that buy US weapons and equipment.
Apart from satellites, lasers and precision-guided munitions, US defence systems that incorporate rare-earth elements include communications, radar, avionics, night vision equipment, jet fighter engines, missile guidance, electronic countermeasures, underwater mine detection, anti-missile defence and range finding. Some civilian components, such as computer hard drives, that contain rare-earth elements also have widespread military applications.
In a report to the US Congress in April, the Government Accountability Office said it had been told by officials and defence industry executives that where rare-earth element alloys and other materials were used in military systems, they were "responsible for the functionality of the component and would be difficult to replace without losing performance".
For example, fin actuators in precision-guided bombs are designed around the capabilities of neodymium iron boron rare-earth magnets. Neodymium is one of 17 rare-earth elements with similar chemical properties. Others include lanthanum, cerium, samarium, europium and yttrium.
The GAO report said the navigation system of the main US battle tank relied on samarium cobalt magnets from China.
China recently cut its rare-earth export quotas by 72 per cent for the second half of this year. Shipments will be capped at just below 8000 metric tons, down from nearly 28,500 tons for the same period in 2009. According to one industry estimate, worldwide rare-earth demand is expected to exceed supply by up to 50,000 tons by 2012 unless major new sources are developed.
Rare earths are essential for hundreds of commercial as well as military applications. The former include electric motors and batteries for petrol-electric hybrid cars, wind power turbines, mobile phones, cameras, portable x-ray units, energy-efficient light bulbs and stadium lights, fibre optics, and glass additives and polishing.
Chinese officials say that mass extraction of rare earths is causing extensive environmental damage in China and that is why the government has tightened controls over exploration, production and trade. Poisonous chemicals are used to mine rare earths in China, putting local water supplies and public health at risk.
Meanwhile, the US appears to be the victim of its own astonishing lack of foresight in security-related industrial policy. Until around 1990, the US was self-sufficient in rare earths and the world leader in processing and use. Yet within a decade it had become more than 90 per cent reliant on imports from China or from countries that receive their plant feedstocks from China.
Why? Environmental and regulatory problems made mining and processing unattractive at the main rare-earth site at Mountain Pass in California, which closed in 2002. Meanwhile, lower costs in China, continued expansion of electronics and other rare-earth element based manufacturing in Asia, and the size and concentration of Chinese rare earth deposits drove the shift from America to China.
Although tagged "rare", rare earths are relatively common and widely dispersed around the world. However, in contrast to ordinary base and precious metals, they are seldom found in exploitable deposits.
Of the nearly 100 million tons of known global reserves that can be economically extracted, more than a third are in China, in the south and up north in Inner Mongolia. Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union have 19 million tons of reserves, the US 13 million tons, Australia 5.4 million tons and India 3.1 million tons. Greenland also has a major deposit, which an Australian firm wants to develop.
The surge in Chinese rare earth output initially flooded the market, cutting prices and stimulating new applications. Now, with increasing state control as China seeks to exploit its advantage, the US and other advanced economies are trying to get alternative rare earth mines into production to reduce reliance on China and improve security of supply, but this may take quite some time. The GAO report said that although deposits in the US, Canada, Australia and South Africa could be mined by 2014, rebuilding the US rare earth supply chain might take up to 15 years."

Sorry if that was long winded, but an interesting article for anyone not convinced of Chinas position in the scheme of things.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by gtfpv

great thread and worthy discussion here for sure .
one thing for me is "60 MINUTES CAN GO JUMP FROM NOW ON . i used to like watching it . now i think it's the most pathetic derogitory disgracefull excuse for TV veiwing it has to be down there with the big brother show .

Its like reading the New Idea instead of The Age to get your news

[uranium_death]

I am not concerned.

Come to Glen Waverley...I feel like I'm living in China already.

That being said, my best mate is Chinese, but he's Aussie.

[ST]

Anybody paranoid about this 'threat' are advised to move to Russia.

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Say what you will, but if you walked into one of my uni classes you could play "spot the Australian" and actually have to try!

I have had two or three Aussie lecturers, the rest are either Indian, Chinese or Japanese, one was even Russian. The best tutor / lecturer I ever had was a man name Wing who is from china, speaks very good English, has 4 kids, has owned and run as successful business here in AUS and has just sold it to go back and study full-time.

In all seriousness, I don't really understand why people are so worried about China, and I can't stand when people get up in arms about them 'taking over' as they don't need to do it with weapons, they can simply do it through economic means. The fact is if you go into the library and look around to see who's studying like mad, you again can play... 'spot the aussie'. There is a reason the jobs are headed overseas, and also why you see so many 'minorities' in skilled areas these days.