- Raw Materials Act draft unveiled
- Disappointing AI “Ernie” sends Baidu shares plunging
- Foreign ministers of China and Ukraine talk on phone
- US government wants to split off TikTok
- German MP calls for lowering dependencies
- Plans for European TSMC plant take shape
- Clashes over Tibet in Geneva
- Johnny Erling on the courageous doctor Jiang Yanyong
The EU is waking up about raw materials. China has been securing the resources it needs to fuel its economy for decades, while Europe has long relied on free market mechanisms. That is honorable, but it is no longer fitting, when other economic blocs use robust methods to gain access first.
Therefore, the Raw Materials Act draft is an important step. But as is always the case within the EU, there are many unresolved questions surrounding the actual implementation. For success, everyone would have to pull together, which member states are notoriously struggling with.
The search engine and AI company Baidu is also struggling a bit with its version of artificial intelligence for civilized conversations. What was announced as a big rival to the US marvel ChatGPT turned out not to be practical during the official presentation. Baidu boss Robin Li did not even dare to have a real-time conversation with his AI. ChatGPT would have easily mastered such a display. But the race for the best AI has only just begun, analyzes Joern Petring.
Earlier this week, Jiang Yanyong passed away, the chief surgeon who became the Party’s bad conscience incarnate. Our author Johnny Erling has known him for decades and retraces the life of a man who fought for the truth. His death under house arrest once again diminishes the chance of reappraising the events of 1989.
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk
Feature
EU unveiled plans to secure raw materials
By 2030, the EU aims to have much larger quantities of important raw materials available for industry – in this way, Brussels wants to break free of its dependence on China in particular. The draft of the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) presented on Wednesday stipulates that by 2030
- around 10 percent of the EU’s demand is to be met from own mining,
- 40 percent from local processing and
- 15 percent from EU recycling.
- In addition, for each strategic raw material, the EU is to source no more than 70 percent of its annual demand from a single non-EU member, like the People’s Republic, in 2030.
Europe.Table already reported last week on the contents of a leaked version of the draft. “After 18 months of work, it’s over with naivety, now it’s time for action,” said Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton at the presentation of the paper, referring to the EU’s rather passive raw materials policy so far.
The day before, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen again highlighted the EU’s dependence on important minerals: “We get 98 percent of our rare earth supply and 93 percent of our magnesium from China,” von der Leyen said, adding that “the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have taught us a bitter lesson” about the EU’s dependence on important minerals.
Continue reading now
… and get free access to this Professional Briefing for a month.
Are you already a guest at the China.Table? Log in now