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Hanoi (AFP) Oct 31, 2010 Vietnam will help to supply Japan with rare earth minerals used in high-tech products, leaders of the two countries said Sunday, as Japan looks to diversify supply after a spat with key provider China. "Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung announced that Vietnam has decided to have Japan as a partner for exploration, mining, development, and separation and production of rare earth minerals in the country," the Vietnamese leader and Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in a joint statement after talks. Japan has said shipments of rare earths from China were blocked during a diplomatic row sparked by the arrest of a Chinese trawlerman in disputed waters. Japan's stockpile of the minerals could be exhausted by March or April without fresh imports from China, officials have said. China, which controls more than 95 percent of the global market, has repeatedly denied it curbed exports in retaliation over the dispute, but all 31 Japanese companies handling the minerals have reported disruption to shipments. Rare earths -- a group of 17 elements -- are used in products ranging from flat-screen televisions to lasers and hybrid cars. Tokyo said last week that India has agreed to provide a stable supply of rare earth minerals to Japan, and Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Wednesday that his country and the United States will cooperate to diversify the sources of rare earth imports. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday received "assurances" from her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on China's policy toward exports of rare earth minerals, a US official said. A White House spokesman said earlier that the US was checking to see whether China was cutting off rare earths exports to US companies but had not reached a conclusion. China recently denied a report in The New York Times that it had halted some rare earth shipments to the United States in response to a US probe into alleged Chinese subsidies for its green technology sector.
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Chinese men accused of abusing Mozambican workersMaputo (AFP) Oct 29, 2010 Mozambique has revoked the visas of three Chinese men accused of beating construction workers with a hammer and scalding them with boiling oil, private newspaper O Pais reported on Friday. "These Chinese are accused of inhumane acts against local employees of Nantong construction company," the Ministry of Labour said in a statement. cited by the paper. One of the accused, Lin Cheng, alle ... read more |
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