Chinas

the EU’s plan to survive China’s mineral blackout

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The clock of global geopolitics has begun to count down the minutes for the European Union. In an unprecedented move that certifies the end of frictionless globalization, Brussels is finalizing the details of what will be its first major strategic “bunker” of critical minerals. As advanced Reutersthe EU has already selected the materials that will inaugurate this joint reserve: tungsten, rare earths and gallium. Magnesium, germanium and graphite could soon be added to this initial list. A firm step. The initiative of the community bloc is not a coincidence; It is its last great asset to shield its economy against the crushing dominance of Beijing in the production of elements that today are the oxygen of modernity. We are not talking about simple raw materials; We talk about vital components for the defense industry, semiconductors and the energy transition. In fact, almost all of these minerals—with the exception of magnesium—are on the list of the 12 elements. considered critical by NATO for military production. Without them, it is impossible to manufacture everything from armor-piercing ammunition that uses tungsten, to the latest generation radars and combat aircraft that depend on gallium arsenide and gallium nitride. The urgency lies in the data. According to a wrecker report of the European Court of AuditorsEurope is addicted to Chinese minerals: the Asian giant supplies 97% of the magnesium consumed by the EU, refines more than 80% of the planet’s rare earths and controls an overwhelming 98% of the world’s gallium refining capacity. The level of dependency is such that Europe flagrantly fails to comply with its own security threshold, which establishes not depending on a single country for more than 65% for the processing phase. But why step on the accelerator now? The response is dated on the calendar: June 15, 2026. As explained Xinhuaon that day the new regulations of China’s Mineral Resources Law come into force. These regulations will give Beijing absolute power to determine total production caps, restrict which entities can operate mines and, most worryingly for the West, subject any foreign investment in the sector to national security reviews. So how will this logistics shield be built? Moving from intent documents to operational reality requires massive infrastructures. As confirmed Reutersthe European Union is already in advanced talks with large logistics centers to store these industrial treasures. The main candidate is the port of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, the largest in Europe. A spokesperson for the port authority has confirmed the ongoing talks, underlining the full readiness of its facilities to assume this strategic role and contribute to European goals. But the bunker will not be centralized in a single point. Italy’s Industry Minister Adolfo Urso revealed that EU officials recently visited Porto Marghera, near Venice, to assess its viability as a storage hub. The port of Trieste is also competing to become the great logistics node of the Mediterranean. However, in this deployment there is a big elephant in the room: financing. Acquiring and maintaining these reserves will require a monumental financial muscle whose origin and distribution mechanisms among Member States are still unknown. The bath of reality. Storing minerals is not like storing natural gas. While rare earth oxides are relatively stable materials, processed gallium metal or certain forms of graphite require highly controlled environmental conditions, a technical challenge that has yet to be resolved. This bunker is just a patch. How an analysis of Rare Earth Exchangestrategic inventories can cushion the impact of a sudden supply outage, but they do not replace an industrial ecosystem. Europe has a deep structural problem, since it is useless to have tons of rare earths stored in Rotterdam if the continent lacks the capacity to refine these materials, convert them into metal and manufacture magnets on a large scale. China has been building this complex ecosystem for decades, while Europe is just beginning to take stock of its own dependence. Added to this deficit is a paralyzing bureaucracy: the few European mining projects are stuck for years in a tangle of administrative permits, making this warehouse an even more desperate measure. The new industrial cold war. While Europe strives to design this defense mechanism against the clock, its rival continues to move chips. China is not only legislating to restrict exports, it is accelerating the construction of its own strategic reserve sites, shielding by law that its resources remain within its borders for a minimum of five years. The creation of this European bunker marks a point of no return. These maneuvers demonstrate that Western governments have definitively abandoned the supply model driven by the free market to embrace deeply interventionist industrial policies. The ambitious goals of the EU Critical Raw Materials Law for 2030 – extracting 10% and processing 40% of what it consumes in its own territory – today seem like an unattainable mountain. The Rotterdam mineral bunker will not solve Europe’s industrial orphanhood, but in the new era of resource geopolitics, it is the only lifeline left to buy the time it so desperately needs. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The condemnation that afflicts China: after decades of manufacturing a competitive desktop processor, it is six years behind

There is no way to find parking and it’s China’s fault

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The scene takes place in the 90s, when a Western tourist who visited Pyongyang tells the story same strange experience: He could travel down gigantic avenues for whole minutes without hardly crossing paths with another vehicle. Some roads seemed so empty that many thought they had been built more like decoration propaganda than to support real traffic. Decades later, that same city begins to discover a problem that for a long time seemed reserved for the rest of the world. The most unexpected paradox. For decades, one of the most recognizable images of North Korea was its enormous practically empty avenues. Pyongyang was designed as a monumental capital to display state power, but with very few cars circulating really through its streets. Reuters counted that now the situation is changing so rapidly that the regime is beginning to face a problem that would have seemed absurd just a few years ago: traffic jams, lack of parking and difficulties in managing the growth of private traffic. The most striking thing is that much of this transformation has a very specific origin. Although international sanctions prohibit the export of vehicles to the country, North Korean roads are filling up with cars and components arriving directly or indirectly. from china. The result is a most fascinating paradox: one of the countries most isolated on the planet It is beginning to look, little by little, like any large Asian city trapped by its own automobile boom. Kim has opened a door. The traffic explosion is not accidental. In recent years, North Korea has legalized and regulated partially private ownership of automobiles, allowing certain citizens to purchase one vehicle per household through state-controlled dealerships. The move is part of a broader strategy by Kim Jong-un to absorb and control economic activities that previously operated in gray or directly clandestine markets. Of course, the private car remains a luxury reserved above all for urban elites and the business class. known as donjubut the simple fact that a relatively formalized market already exists is rapidly altering daily life in Pyongyang. Where military and official vehicles with blue or black license plates once predominated, yellow license plates for private cars are now beginning to multiply. Pyongyang several years ago China as a silent engine. The most important detail is that this new car culture depends almost entirely from china. Officially, Beijing barely recognizes vehicle exports to North Korea since UN sanctions came into effect. in 2017. However, parts and supplies export figures tell a story completely different. Shipments of tires, rearview mirrors, lubricants and related auto components have skyrocketed in recent years. To this, Reuters recalled Added to this is the informal flow of used and new cars that cross the border through networks of intermediaries and smuggling. Many vehicles change hands several times before entering North Korea, making it difficult track your final destination. Thus, while officially cars hardly arrive in the country, the streets of Pyongyang are increasingly filled with Chinese models from brands such as Changan, Chery or Geely. Suffering as if it were London. The consequences are beginning to be visible throughout the capital. Foreign visitors and satellite analysis describe hotels with saturated parking lots, vehicles occupying adjacent streets and congestion points unprecedented until a few years ago. Some new businesses and buildings already incorporate underground parkingsomething extremely rare in the city traditionally. Infrastructure for electric taxis and limited charging stations are even beginning to appear. The most symbolic thing is perhaps the psychological change: finding a parking space begins to become an everyday concern among wealthy sectors of Pyongyang. The image of almost empty avenues It is rapidly disappearing and being replaced by something much more recognizable for any large contemporary city: slow traffic, traffic jams and streets saturated with private cars. Nothing stops China. All of this also reflects the extent to which North Korea economically dependent of China despite international isolation. The expansion of the private car It is strengthening that relationship even more. The cars, parts, fuel and much of the infrastructure needed to sustain this growth come directly or indirectly from the Chinese market. Even European brands like BMW or Audi appear occasionally in Pyongyang through channels that are difficult to trace. If you like, the situation shows (again) an uncomfortable reality for the sanctions system: although trade is officially restricted, the border with China continues to function as an economical valve fundamental for the North Korean regime. And now that dependency is becoming visible in a very concrete and almost surreal way: North Korea is having trouble finding parking because Pyongyang’s roads are filling up with Chinese cars that, on paper, should never have arrived there. Image | (stephan), Roman Harak In Xataka | In 2024, a Russian ship sank off Spain under mysterious circumstances. What he was carrying is even more suspicious In Xataka | Ukraine has barely captured any North Korean soldiers. The reason is brutally simple: they prefer to immolate themselves

The success of Artemis II has lit China’s space fire. Now, your space station will be twice as big

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All powers have embarked on the new space race and Artemis II It has been the lighthouse that demonstrates the interest that continues to arouse in sending humans outside our borders. Aside from rockets, in low orbit humanity has one of the most exclusive laboratories in the universe: the International Space Station. While the long-standing facility awaits dismantling, China has just sent a message with its Tiangong space station. Soon, it will be twice as big. Ambition. When China was left out of the International Space Station project, it got to work on its own facility. The Tiangong It began to take shape in the 2000s and launched its central module into low orbit in 2021. Other modules have been added designed for Chinese astronauts to investigate in an environment that, until now, was forbidden to them. Since then, it has become a symbol of the ambition of the Chinese space program. Also of the speed at which they are completing goalswith round trip rocket tests and plans for build, together with Russia, a lunar station. Despite everything, he has a problem. It is considerably smaller than the ISS and has a mass of just 100 tons, a pressurized volume of 340 m3 with the capacity to house a crew of three astronauts. Expanding the Tiangong. The ISS can support a crew of seven astronauts, has triple the pressurized volume capacity and a mass of more than 420 tons. If China wants to get involved in space research, it had to do something, and its response has come in the form of a project to expand the Tiangong. How has informed state television CCTV, the station will go from being a ‘T’-shaped structure with three modules to a cross-shaped one with six modules. Its mass will be approximately 180 tons and, although it will remain smaller than the ISS, it will have the capacity to equal the astronauts on a permanent mission: six. If the plans are fulfilled, the three current modules will be joined by a fourth that will have multiple docking ports that will give rise to future laboratory units, increasing the potential to six modules. At the moment, there is no date for this expansion, but it is estimated that work will begin around 2027 and will be a Long March 5B the rocket that will transport what is necessary. Since its T-shaped module was completed, astronauts have performed more than 260 experiments and 26 spacewalks. Exclusiveness. China spent 2025 launching rockets, culminating in a month of December in which they broke all their launch records in a stress test for your multiple mission points. With plans to expand their space station, they show that they are committed to this new era of research and exploration, being something that arrives just when the International Space Station remains in question. Tiangong has remained an exclusive laboratory for Chinese researchers, but if it suddenly becomes the only station in low orbit, China is the one that has the access key so that foreign astronauts can carry out their work in those special conditions. On April 22, the Chinese Manned Space Flight Agency already commented that two Pakistan Air Force pilots would be trained as reserve astronauts and one would travel to Tiangong. He will be the first non-Chinese astronaut to do so, although there are already other astronauts from Hong Kong and Macau who will perform the same process. It is something that responds to China’s intention to promote cooperation projects with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, but without forgetting that the Tiangong is Chinese and, as we say, they have the keys to the doors… and the right of admission. Scrap. While the Asian giant announces the good news around its station, on the other side of the world a dismantling process of the ISS is still scheduled for 2031. The plan is that NASA use a vehicle exclusive to SpaceX to guide the ISS to a space cemetery somewhere in the Pacific. In recent months there has been a lot of discussion about whether it is a better idea to dismantle it, turn it into scrap metal or use it as a portbut at this point, the plan continues its course and it is possible that, sooner rather than later, Tiangong will remain the only manned space station in low Earth orbit. In Xataka | Europe has grown tired of being NASA’s “supporting actor.” And that is why it is starting to work with China

China’s largest solar park is doing much more than generating energy: it’s greening a desert

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more than a year ago we had in Xataka how a huge solar park in the Chinese province of Qinghai, in the heart of the Tibetan plateau, served as an ecological experiment: under the panels, the shade retained moisture and made vegetation sprout in the middle of the desert. Now, that same place – the Talatan Solar Park – has become something much bigger. It is the largest clean energy facility on the planet, a “blue sea” of silicon that already covers more than 600 square kilometers at three thousand meters above sea level. Where before there was nothing, China is lifting an energy ecosystem without comparison in the rest of the world. The scale has multiplied. Where last year there was talk of a 1 gigawatt solar park, today a complex extends that reaches 15,600 and 16,900 megawatts and continues to expand. Its area – between 420 and 610 square kilometers – is seven times that of Manhattan. Furthermore, it is not alone since 4,700 megawatts of wind energy and 7,380 megawatts of hydroelectric dams are deployed around it, completing an unprecedented hybrid system. The result: enough renewable energy to supply almost all of the plateau’s needs, including the data centers that power China’s artificial intelligence. According to CleanTechnicaevery three weeks China installs as many solar panels as the entire capacity of the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric project in its history. A global clean energy laboratory. The Tibetan plateau, with its pure, cold air, has become the most ambitious energy laboratory in the world. There, China is experimenting with an electricity production model based exclusively on renewables. Electricity generated in Qinghai—40% cheaper than coal, according to the NYT— powers high-speed trains, factories, electric cars and data centers. In fact, the region is home to new computing centers dedicated to artificial intelligence, which consume less energy thanks to the altitude and low temperatures. “Hot air from servers is used to heat other buildings, replacing coal-fired boilers,” explained Zhang Jingang, vice provincial governor. In the words of Professor Ningrong Liu, in his column for the South China Morning Post: “China is not only leading the transition to green energy; it is building the 21st century energy scaffolding that sustains its industrial leadership in electric vehicles, batteries and solar technology.” Three sources that beat in unison. The magnitude of the project is only possible thanks to centralized planning that combines three main sources: solar, wind and hydroelectric energy. During the day, Talatan panels capture more intense solar radiation than at sea level; At night, thousands of wind turbines collect the cold breezes that sweep across the plains. When both systems fluctuate, hydroelectric dams balance the grid. Also, from the New York Times They described a system reversible pumping: excess solar energy during the day is used to raise water to reservoirs located in nearby mountains, which release that water at night to generate electricity. And under the panels, life returns. The shade of the plates reduces evaporation and soil erosion. According to China Dailythis year the vegetation has recovered up to 80% and 173 villages have benefited from the associated livestock farming. A local shepherd, Zhao Guofu, said: “My flock has grown to 800 sheep and my income has doubled since I grazed between the panels.” The perfect geography for the sun. No other country has taken solar generation to similar altitudes. The altitude plays in favor of physics, at 3,000 meters the air contains fewer particles that block light and the low temperatures reduce the thermal loss of the panels. This efficiency is multiplied in Qinghai, one of the few areas of the Tibetan plateau with large plains, where it is possible to build without the limits of the mountainous relief. The Talatan Desert, once an arid and worthless land, has become an energetic jewel. local authorities offer symbolic leases and have developed roads and high-voltage lines connecting the plateau with the industrial centers to the east. That energy travels more than 1,600 kilometers to factories and cities. According to CleanTechnicaChina already operates 41 ultra-high voltage transmission lines, some longer than 2,000 miles and up to 1.1 million volts. The global scale: no one comes close. Other countries have tried to generate clean energy at altitude, but with modest results. Switzerland, for example, inaugurated a small solar park in the Alps, at 1,800 meters, with barely 0.5 MW. For its part, in the Chilean Atacama Desert, a 480 MW project operates at 1,200 meters. By way of comparison, the Talatan complex multiplies the capacity of the Bhadla Solar Park in India, and for more than seven that of the Al Dhafra Solar Park in the United Arab Emirates, which until recently held records. The superpower of clean energy. China produces and consumes more renewable energy than any other country on the planet. In 2024, was responsible of 61% of new solar installations and 70% of global wind power. That same year, it achieved the capacity targets it had set for 2030. In the first six months of 2025added 212 GW solar and 51 GW wind, and the country’s carbon emissions fell for the first time. In this context, Talatan Park is both a symbol and an infrastructure. China is exporting its renewable technology around the world, from Asia to Africa, following the logic of Belt and Road Initiative. For the academic Ningrong Liu: “China wants to stop being the world’s factory to become the engine of the world’s factory.” It is not just about manufacturing panels, but about selling the complete model: engineering, financing and know-how to build green networks in other countries. The less visible side of the miracle. It’s not all clean energy and pastoral harmony. In its report, The New York Times recalled that access to Tibet remains strictly controlled by the Communist Party, and that Western media were only allowed to visit Qinghai on a government-organized tour. There are also human and environmental costs. CleanTechnica documents how the giant power lines that transport energy … Read more

At 11 km long and with a roof with a light show, China’s longest underwater tunnel has become a tourist attraction

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Under the waters of Lake Taihu, in the Chinese province of Jiangsu, lies the longest underwater tunnel ever built in China. Although it serves today as a great solution to decongest one of the most dynamic regions in the country, it has also become, almost by surprise, a tourist destination on its own merits. The reason: a majestic ceiling full of LED lights that change color and an architecture almost designed more to be contemplated than to be functional. A key point. As we mentioned, the tunnel extends under Lake Taihu, in Jiangsu province, about 50 kilometers east of Shanghai. It aims to connect the expressways of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou to relieve traffic pressure in the lakeside cities, while also serving to boost economic development from the Yangtze River Delta region. It is also a segment of the highway that connects Shanghai and Nanjing, the former national capital. For this reason, it is a key piece in China’s infrastructure network, but its design and light show have also led to it being transformed into a whole tourist experience. Figures. With 10.79 kilometers in length, the tunnel had a cost of about 9.9 billion yuanabout 1,230 million euros. Work began in 2018 and lasted almost four years. To build the two-way tunnel, with six lanes and 17.45 meters wide, more than two million cubic meters of concrete were used. For ventilation, there are three complexes distributed along the surface of the lake that guarantee air circulation inside. The challenge of building under the mud. It was not a simple work. The bed of Taihu Lake is formed by large accumulations of clayey silt, which made it impossible to use conventional excavation methods with tunnel boring machines. The engineering team opted for a cofferdam system: the route was divided into nine sections and, in each one, a temporary dike was built to “create solid ground” and work dry. Once that section was finished, it was filled with water and moved on to the next. According to collect Tunnels & Tunnelling, one of the biggest challenges was waterproofing the structure, since at some points the tunnel is 20 meters below the lake bed. Thes LED lights yesThey always improve everythingeither. Their figures and the work that had to be done for something of such magnitude to materialize is impressive. But the tunnel has attracted more and more attention for a clear reason: its roof. Those responsible They installed LED lights on the roof of the tunnel to combat driver fatigue during what would otherwise be a very monotonous journey underground. The panels do not simply project a uniform color, but rather show images that change. Ventilation and architecture. But the LEDs on the ceiling are not the only eye-catching element. The three ventilation points that emerge on the surface of the lake have been conceived as sculptural pieces. According to China Dailythe one located in the center of the tunnel was transformed into an artificial island 150 meters in diameter; that on the western side, near Mashan, is shaped like a conch; and the one on the eastern side, next to Nanquan, evokes the silhouette of an ancient boat. The most striking is the one known as “Jade Snail”: 45 meters in diameter and 39 meters high, it is equipped with 174,000 LED light points. A tunnel that generates tourism. The CCCC construction company points out that the Taihu tunnel is now the second highway between Shanghai and Nanjing, and has increased the number of visitors to the tourist enclaves of Lingshan and Nianhua Bay by 50%. The Mashan area, directly connected by the tunnel, is home to the Lingshan Great Buddha, one of the largest in the world and a pilgrimage destination for millions of people. Liu Xiaoyu, head of Wuxi National Taihu Lake Tourism Resort, pointed out told China Daily that “the tunnel will bring more tourists to the Lingshan Scenic Area and hotels in the area.” recordd. At almost 11 kilometers, the Taihu is the longest underwater tunnel in China, but it is not the first in the world. The title of longest underwater road tunnel remains with the Norwegian Ryfastwith 14.3 kilometers, connecting the city of Stavanger with the municipality of Strand. On the other hand, if we talk about underwater tunnels in general, the Eurotunnel (which links England and France by rail) retains the absolute record with 37.9 kilometers of submerged section. Images | CGTN In Xataka | Xiaomi or Xpeng car factories are so advanced that they have become the favorite destination of Chinese schools

China’s factories are learning to live with Donald Trump and his tariffs

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Donald Trump’s return to the White House on January 20, 2025 and the massive deployment of a very aggressive tariff package put many Chinese companies on the ropes. The US Administration attacked most of the countries with whom it maintains commercial relations, but, as Trump had anticipated, he attacked China. Xi Jinping’s government responded activating export controls very strict on their critical minerals and rare earths, and it worked. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping They met in October and agreed to relax the aggressive exchange of tariffs that they had during the first months of the year, but many Chinese companies had already been forced to react. Some of them chose to develop new plants in countries close to China that were not initially subject to such aggressive tariffs by the US, such as India or Malaysia. However, this solution was partial. It allowed them to avoid tariffs to a certain extent, but it did not solve their structural problems. China’s infrastructure is irreplaceable Agilian Technology is a Chinese company based in Dongguan that specializes in manufacturing products for third parties. Most of its clients are Western companies that need to produce their products in China, but do not have the necessary business volume to support the manufacturing of a huge number of products. Like many other Chinese companies, Agilian suffered a lot due to the tariffs that the US deployed at the beginning of 2025. Agilian Technology has emerged victorious. In fact, it hopes to increase its income by 30% over the next three years. In fact, their problems actually began before Donald Trump returned to the White House. The threats from the current US president put a good part of Agilian’s clients on notice, so the latter chose to anticipate and asked it to send large quantities of products to North America. before the tariffs went into effect. Other Agilian clients suggested that he set up manufacturing and assembly plants in other countries that presumably were not going to be as affected as China by US tariffs. Agilian, like many other Chinese companies, accepted its customers’ conditions, although some of them canceled their orders. After carefully weighing which would be the ideal places to which they could divert part of their production, Agilian managers opted to launch a factory in Dharwad (India) and another in Penang (Malaysia). However, they soon realized that their Dongguan plant would remain indispensable. The slow pace of bureaucracy in India greatly slowed the start-up of the Dharwad plant, and pre-production testing in Penang took months to begin because everything in Malaysia is much slower than in China. Dongguan continues to be the engine of Agilian, but thanks to the expansion of its infrastructure in response to pressure from the US this company is now much better prepared to withstand future clashes that the Chinese and American Administrations may have. Agilian Technology has emerged victorious. In fact, trust increase your income by 30% for the next three years. And its model is identical to the one that many other Chinese companies that are dedicated to manufacturing products have embraced. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Reuters In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

What is SMIC, China’s big chip manufacturer, doing right now? According to the US, sell them to Iran for the war

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The war in Iran continues. On the one hand it is said that it is almost finished, but on the other we have the shipment of thousands of American paratroopersmore calls for support and one sided offensives and from another. But in almost any conflict, not only those in the countries involved come into play, but also the allies. And the United States has leveled a pretty serious accusation against China: SMIC is selling chips to Iran. Well, “almost certainly.” SMIC in the spotlight. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp the great Chinese semiconductor foundry. Included in the blacklist of the United States government along with Huaweihas managed to develop advanced chips in record time. They have not only challenged everything the US thought they could dobut that association with Huawei and the country’s push for the technology industry have made it one of the spearheads of China’s technological sovereignty. That SMIC has been able to manufacture advanced chips when it was denied access to cutting-edge technology is something that upsets the US government, which reiterated the sanction and keeping the company on the blacklist for alleged ties to the Chinese government. And the latest accusations are not going to relax the tension. ANDUSA says yes. SMIC makes chips and obviously sells chips. And the United States claims that they are supplying technology to Iran. a few days ago, Reuters published an article in which it included two statements by “two senior officials in the Trump Administration” that suggested that Beijing, perhaps, is not staying as far away from the Iran war as they would have us believe. In the article they state that SMIC has been sending chip manufacturing tools to the Iranian army. This raised questions about Beijing’s stance in the conflict, with officials noting – on condition of anonymity – that the company began shipping the tools about a year ago and that they have “no reason to believe shipments have stopped.” A year ago, the United States was not at war with Iran, and China has long maintained a normal trade situation with Iran. US officials note that, in addition, “they have almost certainly also technically trained Iran on semiconductor technology.” And let’s remember that these chips are in everything: from routers to missiles. China says no. The Reuters article does not give any further information or details on whether Iranian tools that included US technology have been confiscated –something that does occur in other conflicts– and neither the Chinese embassy in Washington, SMIC or an Iranian spokesperson at the UN responded to requests for comment. Who has left Lin Jian, the spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke out and did not hesitate to classify the report as “false information.” He accused certain media outlets of launching self-serving news and then classifying all reports as “false information.” On this issue, China has been caught between two waters, first condemning the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khameini by the Israeli and US forcesbut also expressing his rejection of the Iran attacks on Gulf states that house US bases. Back in focus. Beyond Iran, the United States accusations are part of an operation that began a few years ago. The veto of Huawei marked the beginning of the current trade war between China and the United States, but it also marked China’s ‘awakening’ in technological matters, quest for sovereignty and a technological war that branched into chips, robotics, energy, communications, artificial intelligence and in the military arm. SMIC is the large Chinese manufacturer that defied US vetoes by managing to manufacture the chip of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro before whom The US authorities could not believe and, if they manage to demonstrate that they are involved in supporting Israel when China is not actively participating in the conflict, they will have more reasons to intensify the vetoes and sanctions. And all this is framed in a current situation in which Trump and Xi Jinping will meet in a few days to discuss international relations and where the purchase of American technology by China is expected to be one of the points of the day, with NVIDIA very interested in biting a piece of the $50 billion pie that the Asian giant represents. Images | Ballistic Missile, ASML In Xataka | While the US bombs Iran, something unusual has happened: drones attacking the nuclear bases in North Dakota

Sony and Honda have canceled Afeela, their first electric car. One more example of China’s triumph where others fail

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Honda has encountered a wall called the electric car. One that has carried out the development of three of its own electric cars, another that was underway with Sony and that will have an impact on its accounts of about 22.5 billion dollars. The situation, it seems, is not the best. Honda’s jump to the electric car It seemed like an immutable reality just seven years ago. Seven years may seem like a long time but in automotive industry terms it is just the usual jump between two generations of cars. Perhaps that is why the plans, in addition to being immovable, seemed risky. In October 2019, the company announced that From 2022 it would only sell electric cars in Europe. Our continent seemed to be moving towards the electric car under pressure from regulations. Tesla was booming and the companies thought that this was the best path for our market. Today, Honda’s catalog for our country does not have a single electric car. In these years, the Honda e has obtained a very discreet result, victim of a very high price. He e:Ny1, a sort of electric HR-V, is also no longer available after selling an almost negligible number of cars in our country. Along the way, they announced the development of three new electric cars for the US market, all with a groundbreaking and futuristic aesthetic. Also a car that would arrive together with a collaboration with Sony. All of this has been cancelled. The Chinese surprise Much has changed in recent years so that Honda has gone from targeting only the electric market in Europe, developing three new cars with this technology for the United States and another with Sony, to canceling everything. And the company confirmed a few days ago that he reversed his electrical project. First with the cancellation of cars designed only for the American public. The move almost seems logical. The country still does not clearly embrace the electric car and Donald Trump is giving wings to keep every combustion car alive and without any effort. With a country of enormous distances and a charging network that remains insufficientthe electric car continues to have significant pitfalls. This cancellation has had two clear consequences. The first is an impact on Honda’s accounts of more than 20,000 million dollars. How we have the case of Stellantisthis money is not a direct loss, it is the sum of the investments already made, the fines to be paid to suppliers for unfulfilled agreements and the money that is not received from the sales that had been estimated, among other items. The second impact is that Afeela 1 has also been cancelled. This car was born from a collaboration between Sony and Honda. At CES 2023 It was already announced that it would arrive in 2026. Last year, at the same fair, the car was priced for the US market: $89,900 for the “cheap” version and more than $100,000 for the “face.” This year, at CES, we had no news. Less than three months later we know that the project has been canceled because, among other things, it rode the same platform as Honda’s other three electric cars. Once this was cancelled, producing a single car with a single platform was economically unviable. Sony’s car was sold as a leap forward for Hondaa preview of where the market was going to go. The intention was that Honda would provide the hardware and its knowledge making cars, Sony would provide the software and its experience getting the most out of elements such as cameras or sensors. Qualcomm and Epic Games were also supporting the project, the latter company creating an on-demand mobility service for the vehicle. The evolution of the automobile industry has attracted various technology companies. First it was Dyson the company that surprised us by announcing its own electric car. We know that Apple has tried to bring its own car forward and along the way he has left 10,000 million dollars. Microsoft was an investor in Cruise before its closure. Google is making efforts with autonomous cars. This company also wants Android Automotive be an essential part of the future of the electric car. Of all these companies that have been involved in the development of electric cars, all of them have failed. Only Google with Android Automotive seems to be building a long-term ecosystem, which Apple doesn’t seem to be getting it with CarPlay either. We are not talking about companies that supply hardware to automotive companies like Qualcomm or Nvidia, we are talking about companies that also they get involved in the development of a car through their software services or their knowledge to take advantage of that hardware. And, here, China is leading the market. What Sony and Honda intended was to demonstrate that two leading Japanese companies still had enough muscle and knowledge to produce a ground-breaking and competitive electric car. At that time, Xiaomi has built it itself. And Huawei is giving a lesson in China on how to take advantage of these collaborations. Right now, this last company collaborates with Toyota on the latest electric vehicles they have launched for the Chinese market. Its cars have their own ecosystem developed by Huawei that relies on, among other things, the electric motors that Huawei also develops. That is, the Chinese company is in charge of providing its parts and its software knowledge for the ultimate control of them. Huawei and Xiaomi are taking over the operating systems of Chinese electric cars with HarmonyOS and HyperOS. Both companies have extensive experience designing interfaces and digital experiences for the user, an essential service in China to sell electric cars and where Europe, Japan and the United States are still in their infancy, if we compare ourselves to what we see there. Specifically, Huawei has spread its tentacles in the industry until getting its hands on Toyota developments and having cars on the street that will rival Porsche, like the Aistaland GT7sedans that … Read more

build the largest drone industry without China’s help

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A modified commercial drone can cost less than a mid-range mobile phone and still be able to destroy armored vehicles valued in millions. Hence, in recent conflicts, these systems are being lost at such a rate that their production is closer to an industrial logic than to the traditional manufacture of weapons itself. Ukraine has now taken another leap. Being autonomous in the middle of war. Yes, I counted a few days ago the new york times that Ukraine has achieved a relevant milestone in its military industry, and it has done so by developing drones capable of operating practically without direct components from China. It is not a trivial topic. In fact, progress does not arise from comfort, but from the strategic need to reduce dependencies in a context total war. The transition reflects a profound change in the way weapons are produced, one where self-sufficiency becomes as decisive an advantage as combat performance itself. Drones and figures. Ukraine had opened numerous russian drones finding inside a skeleton of technologies and raw materials that came, on the one hand, from their supposed “allies”and on the other from china. Ukraine now hopes that no one tells it the same. The conflict has elevated drones to an unprecedented industrial scale, to the point that they are already attributed more than 90% of Russian casualties according to Ukrainian commanders. In addition, production has also skyrocketed: companies like Ukrainian Defense Drones manufacture up to 15,000 antennas per dayand the use of cheap drones of about $500 has become a key tool to balance the scales against an enemy superior in resources. This logic requires manufacturing in large quantities, assuming high loss rates in missions, and prioritizing volume and speed over perfection. Reduce dependency piece by piece. From that perspective, the advance towards “China-free” drones is progressive and partial, but significant. In just one year, Ukraine has gone from depending almost entirely on Chinese components to reducing that proportion to around 38%replacing key parts such as structures, controllers, antennas or transmission systems. This process has involved rebuilding entire supply chains and developing our own technical capabilities in record time, with European support to fill critical gaps. The real limits of independence. With everything and despite the advances, total autonomy remains complex. There are materials such as carbon, batteries or certain electronic components that still depend on global chains. dominated by Chinaeven when assembled outside its territory. This reveals an uncomfortable reality, since completely eliminating that dependency is not viable in the short term, especially when the cost remains a decisive factor in a war where thousands of units are constantly needed. Production, war and negotiation. They noted in the Times that the development of its own industry not only responds to immediate military needs, it also has political implications. Ukraine thus seeks to strengthen its position in ffuture negotiations demonstrating that it can sustain its war effort without depending on third parties. At the same time, diversifying suppliers reduces China’s pressure capacity, introducing a new balance in the global supply chain. Constant innovation. Practically since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022, the pace of technological adaptation in Ukraine has been breaking with traditional defense schemes. Drone designs are updated monthlyif not before, based on their performance on the front, in a continuous cycle of trial, trial, error and improvement. In short, a model that, driven by the urgency and human cost of conflict, is redefining how military technologies are developed in the 21st century, and where half the planet is asking he source code to copy it. Image | Lycksele-Nord, Maxim Subotin In Xataka | Ukraine has become the world’s leading specialist against Iranian drones. And he won’t share his antidote In Xataka | We thought we had seen everything in Ukraine, but no: the soldiers’ scissors have mutated into something similar to a laser

China’s brutal dominance in rare earth production in the last 30 years, in a revealing graph

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There are few strategic natural resources as important as gas, gold or oil, but there is one that is less known and that is decisive in practically any industry and therefore, also in geopolitics: the rare earthwhich are neither earths nor rare (in fact, they are a list of 17 metals). The state that has enough rare earths in its territory and the capacity to extract them will have much to gain to become a power. Well, if you can cough China, the absolute leader in rare earths so much in reserves as in production. A picture is worth a thousand words. But today the power of China is discussed is one thing and another if the Asian giant started by winning the game. Spoiler: no. The United States Geological Survey It has a very complete database where to visualize production by country from 1994 to the present (among other information), but more than a table, it is better seen with images. Thus, at a glance you can see its beastly hegemony in this chart from Visual Capitalist from 1994 to 2024. 30 years of rare earth production. Visual Capitalist An animation still counts more. The Visual Capitalist illustration shows Chinese superiority, but the evolution of rare earth production by country is better seen with an animation showing its meteoric rise because yes, the global rare earth industry has been profoundly transformed in the last 30 years. In just three decades, China has gone from having a 47% quota to almost 70% of the 400,000 metric tons produced today (by the end of 2024). Or what is the same, going from manufacturing 31,000 metric tons to 270,000 metric tons, something that can be seen in this animation by Global Times and Valiant Panda: Tap to see the animation. Production by country of rare earths from 1994 to 2024, Global Times How America Lost Control. It’s worth stopping the animation at the beginning, because in the 90s the United States was the world’s largest producer of rare earths and Mountain Pass was its main plant for obtaining them. Its average extraction was around 20,000 – 22,000 tons. And then, in 1997, came the Mountain Pass environmental disaster: a burst pipe in the eponymous mine that contaminated the Movaje Desert with toxic radioactive waste. Between the disaster and the subsequent lawsuits, production suddenly fell to 5,000 tons between 1998 and 2002. It would then fall to 0 in the 2000s. It would be in the 2010s when it began to recover: now the United States is around 46,000 metric tons. As Rocío Jurado sang, now it’s too late, lady: it was also in the 90s when China went into steamroller mode. The unstoppable rise of China. That China has come to dominate world production hides several keys. The first, the ability of its suppliers to offer lower prices Thanks to state aid, laxer environmental standards and cheaper labor made possible costs that the West could not cope with. China had the resources, but its victory came because it was able to build an entire industry while the rest of the world watched. Producing the raw mineral is only the first step, then it must be separated to achieve a high degree of purity (between 95 and 99%, depending on the application) in a complex, expensive hydrometallurgical process that, as we have seen, leaves radioactive waste along the way. Where it still dominates more: refining. Because although China has a share of almost 70% of world production, its dominance is even more overwhelming in refining: it produces around 90% of world refining. In fact, other countries such as Australia or the United States extract minerals, they turn to China for refining. If there is no refining industry at the level of extraction, there is no sovereignty. Other faces. Trump wants to step on the accelerator of national mining and expedite permits, the EU also seeks its strategic sovereignty with laws such as the Critical Raw Materials law and its application in places like Per Geijer’s Swedish megamine. We have already talked about Australia, which at least until this year It will depend on China for refining those 16,000 metric tons that have been around in recent years, but there are other countries that have joined the race. But while the Global Times animation focuses on great powers, the Visual Capitalist graph reveals new players in the industry such as Myanmar, Thailand or Nigeria, especially focused on more scarce and valuable elements. However, their supply chains are unstable and have their own regulatory and geopolitical risks. In Xataka | The world’s rare earth reserves, laid out in this graph showing the brutal dominance of a single country In Xataka | Europe seeks its sovereignty in rare earths and knows how to achieve it the fast way: with a supermine in Sweden

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