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A similar thing happened to rubber during WWII when natural rubber resources were compromised. (If anyone is in doubt about the nature of the US relationship wi

A similar thing happened to rubber during WWII when natural rubber resources were compromised. (If anyone is in doubt about the nature of the US relationship with China, consider this news story. [1]) >"When the natural rubber supply from Southeast Asia was cut off at the beginning of World War II, the United States and its allies faced the loss of a strategic material. With U.S. government sponsorship, a consortium of companies involved in rubber research and production united in a unique spirit of technical cooperation and dedication to produce a general purpose synthetic rubber, GR-S (Government Rubber-Styrene), on a commercial scale." [0] It seems that tech companies and the governments of the world just need to either find more resources and control them. Or find new ways to make batteries with different tech/chemistry. (The second option seems the smartest long term, just like rubber tech) [0] https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/syntheticrubber.html https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry... [1] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/fcc-wants-chinese-tech-out-of-us-phones-routers https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-s... Edit: Years ago a client of mine made software for satellites for an unnamed massive defence contractor. They were control systems for satellites that killed other satellites. He was doing this work in the 90s. Late 90s he said the US's biggest enemy was China.

mikepurvis 9y ago
Interesting stuff— there's a small note about it on Wikipedia as well, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrene-butadiene#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrene-butadiene#History
coldtea 9y ago
>Late 90s he said the US's biggest enemy was China. Well, biggest competitor. For enemy it should have also actually done something, and until now it's mostly been western nations doing things to China (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation). Besides, who else would have he said at the late 90s? Russia was a faltering non-entity under Yeltsin, and China was emerging and a billion+ strong.
- adventured 9y ago
  > and until now it's mostly been western nations doing things to China Except of course in the US case, China has had no greater friend than the US over the last half century. In fact, no other nation comes even remotely close to that title. From destroying the Empire of Japan that butchered millions of Chinese during the occupation, to protecting China from getting nuke-genocided by Russia in 1969, to Nixon aggressively seeking peaceful diplomatic & trade ties, to US companies investing extraordinary sums of capital into building out China's initial industrial base, to US retailers happily importing trillions of dollars of Chinese goods (again further building out their industrial base), to the US having never taken action on Taiwan or over-stepped China's red lines on that despite having vast military superiority until recently.
  - justicezyx 9y ago
    All these normal geopolitical maneuvers were labeled kindness. This is a wrong statement of the matters. And a false evidence to support a normal hn commentators sense of moral high ground.
    - sremani 9y ago
      If 'Murica gets criticized for unintended "collateral" damage, may be it is deserving 'Murica gets credit for unintended kindness. aventured has a point, actually has more than point. Your cheap ideological glasses are blinding you to them.
      - dang 9y ago
        Please keep internet political rant tropes far away from Hacker News, regardless of how right you are. Being right makes it worse.
  - bryanrasmussen 9y ago
    http://www.usefulhistorian.com/2014/03/06/dont-forget-chinas-role-in-the-vietnam-war/ http://www.usefulhistorian.com/2014/03/06/dont-forget-chinas...

mikepurvis 9y ago

Interesting stuff— there's a small note about it on Wikipedia as well, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrene-butadiene#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrene-butadiene#History

coldtea 9y ago

>Late 90s he said the US's biggest enemy was China. Well, biggest competitor. For enemy it should have also actually done something, and until now it's mostly been western nations doing things to China (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation). Besides, who else would have he said at the late 90s? Russia was a faltering non-entity under Yeltsin, and China was emerging and a billion+ strong.

adventured 9y ago
> and until now it's mostly been western nations doing things to China Except of course in the US case, China has had no greater friend than the US over the last half century. In fact, no other nation comes even remotely close to that title. From destroying the Empire of Japan that butchered millions of Chinese during the occupation, to protecting China from getting nuke-genocided by Russia in 1969, to Nixon aggressively seeking peaceful diplomatic & trade ties, to US companies investing extraordinary sums of capital into building out China's initial industrial base, to US retailers happily importing trillions of dollars of Chinese goods (again further building out their industrial base), to the US having never taken action on Taiwan or over-stepped China's red lines on that despite having vast military superiority until recently.
- justicezyx 9y ago
  All these normal geopolitical maneuvers were labeled kindness. This is a wrong statement of the matters. And a false evidence to support a normal hn commentators sense of moral high ground.
  - sremani 9y ago
    If 'Murica gets criticized for unintended "collateral" damage, may be it is deserving 'Murica gets credit for unintended kindness. aventured has a point, actually has more than point. Your cheap ideological glasses are blinding you to them.
    - dang 9y ago
      Please keep internet political rant tropes far away from Hacker News, regardless of how right you are. Being right makes it worse.
- bryanrasmussen 9y ago
  http://www.usefulhistorian.com/2014/03/06/dont-forget-chinas-role-in-the-vietnam-war/ http://www.usefulhistorian.com/2014/03/06/dont-forget-chinas...