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After the promulgation of the Foreign Relations Law, the mainland's first law on foreign affairs, the mainland's countermeasures against Western countries arrived almost immediately. The Foreign Relations Law was promulgated the day before, and on the third day, Western countries waited for the joint countermeasures of China's Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs of China against Western countries, that is, export restrictions on foreign gallium and germanium. Although the joint export restriction between the Ministry of Commerce of China and the General Administration of Customs of China does not clearly indicate the target target, everyone is very clear that this export restriction is aimed at Western countries.
Germanium metal and gallium metal have a huge role in the development of science and technology and industrial production in modern industrial society, and the Chinese government's restrictions on gallium metal and germanium metal can be said to have dealt a very heavy blow to the development of science and technology in various fields in Western countries. These include military production, 5G communication networks, as well as aerospace, medical technology and even agricultural production, which can have a relatively serious impact. For this, Western countries have to be mentally prepared.
Today, the mainland's export restrictions on gallium and germanium metal are almost certain, and this export restriction was announced on July 3 and will be officially implemented on the first day of August a month later. Gallium metal and germanium metal are important raw materials in modern semiconductor technology and semiconductor production. It is also an important raw material for the production of new energy technology, including solar panels and gas sensors, etc., which are indispensable for the two metals of gallium and germanium. And germanium metal and gallium metal are important raw materials imported by EU countries from the mainland on a large scale, which is very important for the so-called "green vision" of the EU and the economic environment within the EU itself.
Now, because Russia has interrupted natural gas supplies to EU countries in the past two years, the EU can only seek fossil energy or new energy power generation models. For EU countries, if EU countries want to use clean energy such as new energy power generation in Europe on a large scale, then solar panels are indispensable. If EU countries want to use solar panels on a large scale, it is indispensable for China's raw material supply of EU gallium metal. So the EU countries, so to speak, are completely stuck in the neck when it comes to energy issues. After the announcement of China's export restriction list, it caused considerable shock in Western countries, and the media of Western countries have speculated about China's export restrictions, which is to retaliate against the United States and European countries for the development of China's semiconductor technology and chip manufacturing industry, so China has used this "subterfuge" to restrict the export of semiconductor raw materials.
For Western countries, the situation of metal germanium may be relatively easy to solve, because today's metal germanium production is only very high in China. It is not that China's reserves are very high, China's metal germanium production today accounts for about 80% of the world's total, but the United States is also the second highest metal germanium reserve country in the world, so the United States can solve this problem by mining its own domestic metal germanium ore. But gallium metal is different, China's gallium metal production accounts for more than 95% of global gallium metal production, close to 100%. In 2021, the annual global production of gallium metal was only 430 tons, but the mainland accounted for 420 tons. At the same time, the mainland's proven gallium metal reserves also account for about 68% of the world's proven gallium metal reserves.
And gallium metal is generally used as another metal, a companion metal of metal aluminum, so if you want to put gallium metal into industrial use, you need a certain purification technology. However, at present, only the mainland has a relatively mature technology, and only the mainland has a mature production line for the production of gallium metal. If Western countries rebuild such production lines, the first problem is that there is no technology, and the second problem is that they cannot find a relatively cheap source of electricity, and the cost will be very high, so if Western countries want to build a mature technology for producing gallium metal, I am afraid it will take several years.
In addition, according to the Russian Satellite News Agency, the mainland still controls the mining and processing of lithium metal. At present, in South America, the world's highest production of metal lithium, mainland companies have almost completely controlled the local lithium mines including Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. One-stop mining and processing, all produced and sold by Chinese-funded enterprises. The United States has influence over these countries, but the local people are generally anti-American, and local governments may not be completely at the mercy of the United States, taking into account the people's sentiment and local employment. Even if the U.S. government can completely expel Chinese companies from the main lithium metal production areas in South America, it may be very difficult for Western countries to rebuild production lines and restore related technologies.
At present, the world's ten largest battery manufacturers, mainland enterprises account for six, which just shows that the mainland has hegemony in lithium battery and other industries. This will also be one of the continent's most important bargaining chips in future trade competition and negotiations with Western countries.
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