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China Just Turned Off U.S. Supplies Of Minerals Critical For Defense & Cleantech
(cleantechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
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This is all just Japan from the 80s all over again. There are a bunch of movies from the period with Japan as the bogeyman. The peak probably being the backstory of Die Hard.
The key difference this time is the USA was paying for Japan's defense, had a massive military base, etc. China doesn't have that problem, so they can counter American demands with their own demands.
Interestingly, look at interviews with Trump from the 80s, he'll talk about Japan almost with the same language that he uses for China now. The most famous was probably an appearance of Trump on Oprah.
Can you elaborate on the Die Hard part? I recall the terrorist being German. The only reference to Japan, that I recall, was the name of the building.
That name of the building is the backstory I was referring to. That was a headnod to what was actually happening with Japanese investors moving in and buying up a lot of American real estate. I think that's when a Japanese group bought the Plaza hotel in NYC for example and when Sony bought a movie studio (renamed it Sony pictures, but I think it was CBS movie division).
Gung Ho, staring Michael Keaton, is another movie example.
Thanks for explaining, TIL!
I remember in the 80s several National Lampoon covers that featured this concept. One had a tagline with something like "Welcome to America, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Honda Motor Company" or something like that. And then there is the slightly racist one in this image: