uncommonwisdom,
China and Japan are having a small but potentially painful dispute over the ownership of a small chain of islands in the East China Sea.
These islands have very little significance other than the oil deposits that may lie around them. Whoever owns these islands would have claims to the mineral deposits on the ocean floors surrounding the islands.
Tensions heated up when a Japanese coast guard boat collided with a Chinese fishing vessel on September 7. Japanese authorities detained the Chinese captain and tough talk flowed from both sides.
The culmination was the temporary halt of exportation of rare earth metals from China to Japan.
Rare earth? No, I’m not talking about the 1970′s rock group nor am I talking about uranium or plutonium. I’m talking about a group of minerals that contain elements quite rare when discovered in Sweden in 1787. (more)
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