America gave up its rare earth edge. China took full advantage.
摘要
稀土元素广泛应用于手机、汽车等日常设备，但将其从矿石中分离提纯难度极高，因此掌控加工环节的国家拥有显著政治影响力。文章指出，美国曾在这一领域占据优势，后来逐渐放弃，中国则充分利用了这一机会，在稀土加工方面取得主导地位。
Look around you, and you’ll see rare earth elements at work. A phone vibrates because a magnet moves a weight. Its screen was polished with cerium powder. Its connection to the rest of the world crosses oceans on cables amplified with erbium. If you drove today, a rare earth magnet helped you steer, and a cerium compound scrubbed the exhaust.
All of these devices function because of 17 metals collectively known as rare earth elements. The scientists who gave the group that name in 1794 created a misnomer. Cerium alone is about as common in the Earth’s crust as copper.
However, separating rare earth minerals from one another and from raw ore is intensely difficult. As a result, countries that control the processing of rare earth minerals have a lot of political leverage.
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