Chinas

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

China’s nuclear renaissance is now visible from space

by

Since China detonated its first atomic bomb In the midst of the Cold War, its relationship with nuclear matters has been marked by secrecy, declared prudence and a deep distrust of the great powers. For decades it chose to stay in the background, building capabilities away from the spotlight and speaking little about them. This historical silence is key to understanding why, each time that something moves In that area, the world pays attention. A silent resurgence in the mountains. The story was brought in a special the new york times this weekend through satellite images. In the humid and rugged valleys of Sichuan, far from prying eyes, China is reactivating and expanding a nuclear infrastructure conceived for another era but adapted to a rivalry between superpowers that is intensifying again after the end of the historic pact between Moscow and Washington that we counted recently. Images from space show new bunkers, ramps and industrial complexes with ventilation and thermal dissipation systems that aim to high risk activitiesintegrated into a framework that no longer seems defensive or residual, but rather coherent with an accelerated and planned expansion that has been gaining pace since the end of the last decade. The inheritance of the “Third Line” and its update. These enclaves are not born from nothing, but sink their roots in what was called lto “Third Line”promoted by Mao Zedong to protect the nuclear heart of the country from American or Soviet attacks. For decades, that internal nuclear empire remained in the backgroundreduced and fragmented when global tensions eased. Today, those same facilities seem regain prominencenot as relics, but as modernized nodes that recover their central function in a China that has left behind the doctrine of minimum containment. Zitong in 2022 (top) and 2026 (bottom) Zitong and Pingtong: key pieces. They explained in the Times that the work detected in Zitong suggests advanced testing of high-precision explosives, essential to perfect the implosion that initiates a nuclear reaction, while the Pingtong complex, with its large ventilation chimney and its characteristic architecture, points to the manufacture of metal cores of the warheads, probably plutonium. The structural similarity with foreign facilities specialized in this process, like Los Alamos National Laboratory, reinforces the idea that China is closing the full cycle of design, testing and production of modern nuclear weapons. Intelligence, data and the value of what is not seen. Beyond the visible, the real leap is in the integration of intelligence, geospatial analysis and advanced simulation capabilities. The great laser ignition laboratory in Mianyang allows the behavior of nuclear warheads to be studied without the need for actual detonations, an approach that reduces political and environmental risks while accelerating technical refinement. In this way, each work detected is only a fragment, but together they form a mosaic that reveals a strategy based on accumulating knowledge, validating designs and gaining operational confidence without openly crossing international red lines. A direct challenge to gun control. There has been a lot of talk about these in recent weeks with the end of the New Start treaty. This Chinese acceleration would complicate any attempt to revive global nuclear control agreements after the expiration of that last treaty between the United States and Russia. Washington insists that China must form part of any new framework, but Beijing avoids commitments that limit growth that it considers necessary for its status as a global power. The American accusations of covert tests, rejected by China, add a layer of mistrust that pushes both sides to plan based on worst-case scenarios. Taiwan and the logic of enhanced deterrence. The backdrop to this effort is China’s perception of vulnerability to nuclear coercion American, especially in a plausible crisis over Taiwan. As? A largest arsenaldiverse and technologically tuned offers Beijing the feeling of sufficient immunity to maneuver more freely in a conventional conflictraising calculation risks for all parties. In that sense, what is happening under the mountains of Sichuan is not only an industrial modernization, but rather points more to a strategic bet that redefines the balance and forces the rest of the world to interpret, and the “intimate enemies” to react, if They are not doing it anymore. Image | Planet Labs, Google Earth, Airbus In Xataka | The United States is convinced that China is conducting nuclear tests. The problem is that you can’t prove it. In Xataka | China is building something that looks like an oil well. It is actually a nuclear bunker with a command center

US sanctions are collapsing China’s factories. It’s bad news for the rest of the world

by

The US has intensified in recent years its tariff policy against China. Under the shield of “national security reasons,” the Trump administration has attempted to isolate China from essential components to create cutting-edge technology. The play didn’t go too welland China is at its best moment of national production. So much so that the capacity of its factories is reaching the limit. There are those who warned. Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel, warned at the beginning of February in his statements. He pointed out that the US blockade is only achieving the opposite effect, driving giants like Huawei to develop silently and accelerating the race for China to obtain the capacity to make three nanometer chips. SMIC confirmed it. He SMIC report corresponding to the fourth quarter of 2025 is a perfect summary of China’s efforts to one day end up leading the semiconductor race. China doesn’t just want to make chips for mobile phones: it wants to dominate the semiconductors that support AI, cars, telecommunications, industry, energy and defense: because whoever controls these chips controls technological power. The key data. That SMIC’s profits have grown by 39% in the last year is quite revealing, but that the capacity of its factories has risen to 93.5% is even more so. In other words, the Chinese company is practically at the limit of its production capacity, having to satisfy the demanding demands of both the government and local companies. How does this affect me?. Among the key sectors that China wants to lead is AI. And this one needs many, many chips. So much so that SMIC has warned that the demand for them is being so enormous that the rest of the consumer electronics orders are being compromised. This ends up translating into delays in supply, price increases and something that we have been warning about for months: basic components such as RAM, SSD memories and so on. They are going to be more expensive than ever. Without help from anyone. China, without access to ASML’s most advanced machines, is achieving alternative routes for your manufacturing processes. Although some of its manufacturers are still in collaboration with giants like TSMC (case of Xiaomi with “its” XRing 01 chip, manufactured by TSCM in 3nm), the plan is to be completely self-sufficient. Something that they will end up achieving, sooner or later. In Xataka |

break China’s monopoly on rare earths

by

If in the 20th century the powers fought over oil wells, in 2026 the battle will be fought on the periodic table. Lithium, cobalt, gallium and rare earths have become the new barrels of crude oil, essential for manufacturing everything from the battery of an electric car to the guidance system of a hypersonic missile. In this scenario, Donald Trump’s administration has encountered an inescapable geological reality: the rhetoric of “America First” has a physical limit. To win the technology race of the 21st century, Washington needs its neighbors. In an unprecedented diplomatic and economic maneuver, the United States has launched an offensive to recruit Mexico, Argentina and a bloc of global allies, with the declared objective of shielding themselves from the vulnerability posed by China’s almost absolute dominance over critical minerals. The peak of strategic anxiety. The epicenter of this Copernican turn was the State Department in Washington, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance They served as hosts at the “Ministerial Meeting on Critical Minerals”. The call was no less: 55 international delegations sat at the table, under an urgent premise that the free market has failed. The American diagnosis is severe. China controls 90% of rare earth processing capacity and has begun to use that monopoly as a geopolitical weapon, imposing licensing requirements and restricting exports to pressure American industry. “The international market for critical minerals is failing,” said Vice President Vancearguing that Beijing floods the market with low prices to ruin Western competition and then raise prices at will. Project Vault and the lapse. To counter this, the White House has presented tools that rewrite the rules of global capitalism. Trump announced the creation of a strategic mineral reserve valued at 12 billion dollars (10 billion in Ex-Im Bank loans and almost 1.67 billion in private capital). Like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve created in the 1970s, this “vault” —call Project Vault— will accumulate stock to protect giants such as General Motors, Stellantis and Google from future supply crises. But the White House mentality has gone from business to war, literally. In a Freudian slip or statement of intent, the Trump administration’s official documents on these investments list the Pentagon under its 19th-century name: Department of War (War Department). Under this anachronistic headingWashington is already financing mining projects in Alaska and North Carolina, making it clear that resource extraction is no longer a matter of the market, but of pure and simple national defense. The FORGE alliance and “price floors”. To support this scheme, has been launched he Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE), initially chaired by South Korea, to coordinate a “preferential trade zone.” The revolutionary idea here is floor prices: if China pulls down global prices, the members of the bloc external tariffs will apply to maintain high internal value, thus guaranteeing the profitability of mining investments in allied countries. However, the market has reacted with skepticism to this interventionism. Paradoxically, after the announcement, the shares of American mining companies such as MP Materials and USA Rare Earth plummeted between 6% and 9%. According to analysts cited by Reutersthe fear is that the Trump administration will withdraw direct subsidies for individual projects to focus on this complex global price engineering, leaving local companies exposed to regulatory uncertainty. This entire American strategy draws a two-speed map of the world. On the one hand, there is the technological “VIP club”: the United States, Japan and the European Union will sign a binding trilateral agreement in 30 days to coordinate their industries. On the other hand, there are the suppliers of raw materials: Latin America. Argentina and the delivery of Lithium. In the south, Javier Milei’s administration has decided to unconditionally align its resources with Washington’s interests. Argentina, the world’s fifth largest producer of lithium, signed a framework agreement that ties it to the American supply chain, using RIGI as bait (Incentive Regime for Large Investments). For the White House, Argentina is the key piece to deal a blow to Beijing. At the moment, more than 70% of Argentine lithium travels to China, a flow that the US is determined to cut off and redirect towards its own factories. The operation is already underway. While diplomacy was signing papers, money was moving: the giant Glencore has agreed with the Orion consortium (backed by the US) to acquire assets, demonstrating how Western capital is beginning to take positions on the ground. Secretary Marco Rubio He did not hide his enthusiasm for this total provision: “Argentina is going to be a key partner for the world,” he stated, highlighting not only the extraction, but the country’s capacity to process the materials that the US needs. In practice, this makes the South American country a primary link in American national security. Mexico: The treasure map and the threat of the “Menú”. The situation in Mexico is one of forced pragmatism under threat. With the T-MEC review scheduled for July, the Mexican government accepted an “Action Plan” 60 days that goes far beyond commerce. The agreement opens the door to something that strikes a chord with national sovereignty: the US Geological Survey will collaborate in the “geological mapping” of Mexican territory to locate deposits, an x-ray of the neighbor’s resources carried out from Washington to “provide transparency.” The Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, justified the transfer with a phrase of brutal realism: “If you are not at the table participating, you are on the menu.” But for many, Mexico is already being devoured. The “Cambiémosla Ya” collective has issued a fierce alertdenouncing that this plan is a “return to neoliberalism” that subordinates national sovereignty to the industrial needs of the north. They warn that the rush to comply with Washington’s quotas will cause “the dispossession, displacement and destruction of communities”, relaxing regulations to turn the territory into a sacrifice zone for the US energy transition. Passport for rocks, walls for people. The backdrop of this great mineral alliance reveals a contradiction that defines the current era. While … Read more

China’s new obsession is to prevent the US from confiscating its ships

by

When we think about boarding, it is inevitable that a scene from “Pirates of the Caribbean” comes to mind that takes us to past times and fiction, but nothing is further from reality. We have recently seen how American special forces carried out a raid on a cargo ship traveling from China to Iran at the end of last year in the Indian Ocean and another at the beginning of this year, this time in the Atlantic and with Marinera as a goalan oil tanker flying the Russian flag. It is not an action movie, it is the current maritime geopolitical reality. From the sanction to the boarding. That with Trump the United States’ policy towards the world had changed is no longer a surprise: his modus operandi at sea is another example of his proactive policy. At least seven ships have already been confiscated of the ghost fleet that transports Venezuelan oil, in addition to the Marinera oil tanker and the cargo ship in the Indian Ocean. In the latter case, the commandos confiscated “dual-use” components (military and civilian) before allowing the ship to continue on its course. The United States has clearly moved from paper sanctions to action. The boarding of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela bound for the Asian country was branded by China as a serious violation of international law, as declared its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The United States is putting its fist on the table. For China this is not a mere isolated event. According to analysts from Nanjing University quoted by the South China Morning Post The Trump Administration has one objective: to reaffirm American hegemony on the high seas, putting essential routes such as the Strait of Malacca in check. An open wound: Yinhe’s trauma. For China, this is a true déjà vu that takes them directly back to 1993, when the United States paralyzed the Chinese cargo ship Yinhe, causing it to deviate from its route for a search in search of chemical weapons that finally they did not exist. in China it was considered a deliberate provocation and put a reality on the table: they needed a powerful navy capable of escorting their ships beyond Malacca, otherwise the part of the economy that depends on the sea would be hostage to the decisions of the United States. M.Minderhoud – own work based on PD map, Public domain What is it about Malacca that is essential for China?. Just take a look at the map: the Strait of Malacca is the maritime gateway that links China to the world. Much of its energy and commerce passes through that enclave. If the United States normalizes the seizure of ships in the Indian Ocean before they reach the strait, it will be able to choke off China’s supply before cargo can access its safe waters without having to launch a single missile. Malacca is the weakest link. Because the Strait of Malacca is a maritime line of communication historical: this report from a 20o6 chinese report It says that more than 80% of Chinese oil exports transited through the Strait of Malacca. Today, this dependence remains a critical problem for which China still has no solution: 80% of China’s $390 billion in annual energy imports still passes through that 2.7-kilometer-wide strait at its narrowest part, according to data from the Observer Research Foundation report for September 2025. By DoD – Image:China Report 2006 China’s plan: escorts and an eye for an eye. Professor Li Lingqun of Nanjing University explains for SCMP a possible response, which involves “providing naval escorts for commercial vessels to deter such actions. (…)The rapid development of China’s naval capabilities today allows the rapid deployment of these means.” The United States is already aware that China is ready to deploy escorts beyond the Gulf of Adam. From Beijing, the brand new new Type 076 amphibious assault ship says hello EITHER the Sichuanthe largest amphibious assault ship in the world. China’s response to what the South China Morning Post qualifies as state piracy It would not be limited to diplomacy, but would also be military. As analysts detail, China has the legal precedent of the United States boarding to replicate this same action or intensive inspections at sea, including the Taiwan Strait. You already have your coast guard ready for do offshore inspections. This China of 2026 is not the one of 1993. And we have already seen it in the trade and tariff war: in the form of tariff counterattacks in response to Trump or as a pressure measure with its rare earth elementsa market where has total hegemony. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that in the roadmap China is modernizing its military capabilities with 2035 as the deadline. In Xataka | China has revealed a new naval military strategy: civilian ships that can become missile launchers In Xataka | Satellite images have revealed that China has gathered its most important aircraft carriers. And that can only mean one thing Cover | rhk111

China’s drone shows in 2026 are nothing like we’ve seen before

by

Without being me the viral Uruguayan lady from TikTok who thought they were something paranormal, it must be admitted that some drone shows leave people speechless. Spoiler: the one in Barcelona, ​​with all due respect, was not that big of a deal. Especially if we compare it to what China is doing. From a technical point of view, drones evolve the compositions of classic fireworks, but the Asian giant stands out for its handling of this device in every sense: on a military level, making it shoot with surgical precision from 100 meters away or 200 units are carried out by a single soldieror in the playful. And as an example, some of their shows from recent months that show that China plays in another league. Note: To enjoy the audiovisual content more, we recommend that you set the videos to the highest quality possible. China’s big coup in authority over drone shows came with the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China: to date, the records for the number of units controlled by a single team (do not confuse with that of Ras Al Khaimahthat of the largest aerial image of a phoenix made by drones) there were around 5,000 drones, but for the occasion more than 10,000 units (10,179, specifically) crossed the sky, controlled by a single computer, forming figures as culturally iconic as a red dragon crossing the bay of Shenzhen. That they are capable of emulate the dragon’s scales or how it executes a complete turn It’s amazing, but the evolution of drone shows in the country has been such that it has already become outdated… and has dropped to bronze in the Guinness Book of Records. And as an example, what better than to see what he did at the beginning of February of this year as a rehearsal for the next Chinese New Year (the Spring Festival) in Heifei (Anhui): more than 20,000 drones tracing three-dimensional figures with such complexity and density of light that it almost seems solid. And it’s just a test, hence it doesn’t count for records. Tap to go to the X/Twitter post Tap to go to the X/Twitter post Weeks before, the China Science and Technology Innovation Gala also took place in Heifei, where they recreated the Anhui Opera and a historical event: the arrival of the four opera companies to Beijing for Emperor Qianlong’s 80th birthday. It would be the birth of what is known today as Peking opera. The important thing here was not so much the number of drones, but rather the artistic fusion. Nevertheless, according to the China Global Television Network10,000 drones illuminated the sky with iconic images of Chinese opera sharing performance with human and robot performers in a curious mix of tradition and innovation. China Science and Technology Innovation Gala. CGTN In Heifei they have taken a liking to drone exhibitions and last fall there were another more modest (by Chinese standards) of “only” 1,024 units to celebrate the upcoming science and technology exhibition, as CGTN explains. On this occasion, more than something artistic or record-breaking, its approach was purely scientific and technical, with the drones forming robotic or DNA structures. There may be few drones, but the fluidity of the transitions is notable. 8th World Voice Expo. CGTN To welcome 2026, the city of Chongqing hosted a show Of “only” 8,000 units on the Yangtze River they formed figures like a dragon, the essential countdown and the galloping horse (because this Chinese New Year will be the year of the horse) in a spectacle that played with air, land and water. Also in Guangzhou They celebrated the end of the 15th National Games of China and the arrival of 2026 at the same time with the massive deployment of more than a thousand drones over the Pearl River to reproduce sports figures or the mascots of the games from the countdown of the year. The number of drones may be lower than in other events, but the quality is striking: the representation of fluidly moving silhouettes is striking. Going back to the records, Guinness still boasts it Liuyang city, Hunan province. In fact, the company High Great he managed to beat it twice in October 2025: on the one hand, it managed to have 15,947 drones synchronized from a single computer (the largest number to date) and not only created figures, but launched “cyber fireworks” (there were real pyrotechnics loaded into the devices). How many? 7,496 units, the largest number of fires launched from drones. Coincidentally, that city is known as the “world capital of pyrotechnics” and the milestone took place at the Liuyang Fireworks Festival, showing that drones do not come to replace fires, but to complement them. The fusion seems like magic. Given China’s rapid pace with drones, that record has its hours numbered. Nevertheless, today the Guinness silver It is displayed at the DAMODA exhibition in July 2025 in Heyuan (Guangdong), where 11,198 drones created enormous figures over Lake Wanlvhu representing the evolution of the area in recent decades. Behind these records are companies like High Great and Damoda and beyond getting headlines, there is a real technical challenge behind: Keeping thousands of devices in the air without colliding and with a latency of milliseconds requires extremely high GPS precision and computing power that is not available to everyone. In Xataka | The Vatican drone show was commissioned by an unexpected businessman: Elon Musk’s brother In Xataka | Climbing Everest in person costs 50,000 euros. Uploading it in 4K from the sofa at home is now free Cover | High Great

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.