U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off the supply of chips and processors to Huawei Technologies Co. is hitting China’s biggest tech company where it hurts – its dependence on other nations for the semiconductors and software in smartphones and networking gear.
So when Chinese President Xi Jinping showed up days later at a rare earths processing plant, many observers saw a message in the visit: the U.S. has its own tech vulnerabilities, too.
1. What are rare earths?
A group of 17 chemically related elements found in mineral form that have magnetic and optical properties useful for making electronics more efficient. Electric vehicle makers rely on them for lighter-weight battery and motor components, while large wind turbines tend to use rare-earth-based magnets.
They’re also frequent components of everyday objects like light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, used to light up smartphones and stadium score boards.
2. How rare are they?
Not as rare as other precious metals such as gold or silver. But they’re usually so intermixed with other minerals as to make their extraction and refinement costly, particularly when the mining conforms to the environmental standards of developed countries.
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