500N,
China is also taking control of strategic minerals all around the world. Particularly in Africa and Australia. You comment about worrying japan is correct. The rest of the world is also getting worried. China, in Africa, are not yet as important as countries such as the UK, Canada and South Africa, but they are getting there.
There are many misconceptions concerning the Chinese imperative to ensure security of supply for resources and hence its interest in African resources. It is, however, of major concern for China that it is not to be able to secure its supply of most of the economically important metals and minerals in the way the ‘Western’ countries have been able to do for decades. This is why it is carrying out the policies that it does.
China is also building up strategic reserves in Inner Mongolia and other locations. Currently, about 36 percent of the world’s reserves of the metals are in China. China also tightened control over the metals by slashing quotas for overseas shipments by some 35 percent for the first half of 2011, as well as hiking export taxes.