[wisconsin_cur]

I thought there was a thread on this. If someone else can find it, let me know and I will merge them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/7970872/Backlash-over-China-curb-on-metal-exports.html

Baotou Steel High Tech Co said in February that it was building storage space for 200,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides. The company has since been told to stockpile metals by party bosses in Inner Mongolia. China Daily reports that Baotou and Jiangxi Copper are aligning their policies and now "virtually control" the market.

China claims it will need a growing proportion of these metals for its own industries, but US and Japanese officials say privately that Beijing's methods are not in keeping with the WTO ethos. Japan has already drafted a "Strategy For Enhancing Stable Supplies of Rare Metals" and has been stockpiling.

[americandream]

You notice they say it privately. Can't be annoying some of those vast Western and Japanese pools of funds literally powering the Chinese juggernaut. Personally, I don't think China allocating REM's to its Western owned businesses will bother the pollys much. A few odd mumbles of discontent from those not in the know, but not much else.