CATL Suspends Production at China Lithium Mine for Three Months
CATL, the world's largest manufacturer of electric-vehicle batteries, has announced internally that the Jianxiawo mine would be temporarily halting operations, said the people. One of the people said affiliated refineries in nearby Yichun had been informed. They asked not to be named as they are not authorized to speak publicly.
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Fox News
37 minutes ago
- Fox News
China's rare earth tech obsession ensnares US resident as CCP looks to maintain stranglehold
China's bid to strangle the world's supply of heavy rare-earth elements was about to hit a wall. Vietnamese entrepreneur Luu Anh Tuan had lined up U.S. backing for a technology that could break Beijing's chokehold on the critical minerals behind everything from smartphones to missile-guidance systems. Tuan and his family had fled Vietnam for the U.S. to escape Beijing's tightening grip over Hanoi, where the Chinese Communist Party exerts a heavy influence on domestic governance. In July 2023, he signed a technology transfer agreement, seen by Fox News Digital, to bring the heavy rare earth separation technology he was using at his Vietnam-based company, Vietnam Rare Earth (VTRE) to VTRU Corporation, a company registered in Nevada. VTRE had also signed a series of memoranda of understanding (MOU) agreements with Western companies. "He had a bad sense of insecurity about being in Vietnam. He was determined to transfer his technology to the US as quickly as possible," a source familiar with the rare earth industry, granted anonymity to speak without fear of retribution, told Fox News Digital. At the time, the world was entirely dependent on Chinese companies to separate their heavy rare earth metals. "China has been really working for the better part of over 20 years now on building this dominance," Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an interview. And while companies like U.S.-based MP Materials and Australia-based Lynas are in the process of developing their own separation technologies, China still controls up to 90% of the rare earths separation and refining capacity and over half of mining output. In October 2023, Tuan, then a U.S. permanent resident and green card holder in the process of becoming a citizen, was back in his Hanoi office when Vietnamese authorities raided the building, seizing all laptops and records. Seventeen employees were arrested, according to Tuan's American business partner, Richard Dunham, and all but one, Do Hanh Huong, Tuan's sister-in-law and COO of VTRE, have since been released. The arrest came shortly after President Joe Biden visited Vietnam and signed cooperation agreements on rare earth minerals. In December, China banned rare earth extraction and separation, in what the industry saw as another effort to maintain its monopoly on the market. "When China put in these restrictions, it really made countries like the U.S. and Australia realize that they didn't actually even have the technical know-how to do it themselves," said Baskaran. "The process itself is just very labor-intensive and very toxic," said Josh Birenbaum, a minerals expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, adding China cornered the market through state subsidies and lax environmental concerns. While the U.S. has one major rare earths mine, MP Materials' Mountain Pass, until this year, the company was exporting those rare earths to China for separation. The trade war and export controls that followed prompted the U.S. to stockpile its rare earths until separation capacity was up to scale at home. Tuan was accused of forging a value-added tax receipt while trading rare earths with Thai Duong Group, which operates a mine in the northern Vietnamese province of Yen Bai. VTRE had partnered with Australian mining companies Australian Strategic Materials and Blackstone Minerals Ltd. Tuan and Dunham had also met with officials from the state of Nevada and the Department of Energy to discuss plans to bring the separation technology to the U.S. through VTRE. Both were "enthusiastic" about the proposal, which ultimately led to the signing of the transfer agreement, according to Dunham. The arrest also came as Vietnam prepared to auction the Dong Pao mine. VTRE, backed by Western partners, was the only qualified bidder, according to Dunham. This year, Tuan pleaded guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. He'll spend 16 years in prison with a fine of $10 million, but his advocates say he was "coerced." Huong was sentenced to six years in prison. "We believe these charges to be manipulated, charges that were founded by Vietnamese state actors who have realigned themselves with China," said Dunham. "He was tortured to obtain a guilty plea." Fox News Digital could not independently verify this claim. The State Department documents credible reports of arbitrary arrests, torture and inhumane treatment by authorities, affecting both political detainees and others in custody. Medical neglect and forced confessions are frequently reported. Tuan's advocates say the company he was purchasing ore from, Thai Duong, refused to provide invoices at the actual rate VTRE was paying for ore. It only provided invoices that claimed it was selling ore at a lower rate, reducing its taxable income. According to Dunham, Thai Duong refused to issue invoices reflecting the actual sale price to VTRE, allegedly to avoid environmental, natural resource and corporate income taxes, obligations that fell on Thai Duong, not Tuan. Tuan was faced with a choice: accept the lower-rate invoices and make up the tax discrepancies with his own money or allow his state-funded minerals project, and in turn, his business, to collapse, per Dunham. Though Tuan was convicted on criminal charges, Dunham said the violation of accounting regulations lacks evidence of criminal intent. "Even if he were guilty of an accounting issue, it's not something that is criminally liable for what they're trying to do. No place in Vietnam has there ever been an issue with this type of sentencing. It's totally unheard of. Typically you would pay a fine and that's it." "He is the only individual outside of China that has a fully integrated rare earth company that's from mining to metallization; in other words, from digging it out of the ground to the manufacturing of magnets." Tuan was also convicted of smuggling rare earth materials, but customs documents show clearance of 63 shipments of heavy rare earth oxide mixtures under tax code 2846, which corresponds to rare earth compounds. The court misclassified the exports under tax code 2530 (raw ore), to falsely claim they were illegal, according to Dunham. The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security's investigation concluded that customs officers who signed the 63 export declarations for VTRE verified Tuan's compliance. China's crackdown since then has only accelerated. Minerals experts have been ordered to surrender their passports to prevent them from sharing any technology outside the country. Beijing has tightened controls on exports of rare earths, prompting major concerns from within the U.S. defense industry. While China allowed them to flow again during trade negotiations with the Trump administration, they remain banned for defense purposes. According to Dunham, VTRE has developed the technology to produce heavy rare earth oxides from xenotime, monazite and ion-absorption clay at a purity of 95% through a solvent extraction system. The technology was capable of processing diverse ore types and recycling NdFeB magnets. Requests for assistance from the U.S. government have not been fruitful, according to Tuan's advocates. Tuan is essentially cut off from his family and lawyers. He's seen family members around five times since his arrest nearly two years ago. "We are deeply concerned about his physical and mental well-being," the source said. "He is mentally resilient. He continues to believe the truth will eventually come to light." Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House, State Department, Chinese Embassy and Vietnamese Embassy for comment.
Wall Street Journal
2 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
TNB Tech Minute: Intel's CEO Already at Odds With Board - Tech News Briefing
Full Transcript This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated. Julie Chang: Here's your morning TNB Tech Minute for Friday, August 8th. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. We exclusively report that Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been at odds with his board over the company's strategy in his first few months leading the tech giant. According to people familiar with the matter, Tan and some Intel directors have clashed about whether the company should stay in the manufacturing business or exit it entirely. Yesterday, those tensions were heightened when President Trump unexpectedly called for Tan's ouster, claiming the CEO is conflicted by business ties to China. In a statement to the Journal, Intel said its board and management team are aligned on the company's strategy. SMIC, China's largest chipmaker, said U.S. tariffs should continue to have a limited impact, since domestic demand is increasing sharply and overseas clients are better prepared for the headwinds. The company's domestic market accounted for 84% of its revenue in the second quarter, while the U.S. accounted for just under 13%. That's down from 16% a year earlier. But SMIC reported an almost 20% decline in net profit due to production fluctuations. Shares fell nearly 8%. And Meta Platforms has settled a defamation lawsuit with conservative activist Robby Starbuck. Starbuck alleged the company's artificial intelligence chatbot falsely asserted he participated in the January 6th Capitol riot. Under the settlement, Starbuck will advise the company on removing political bias from its AI tools. Staying on Meta, its new team devoted to building machine superintelligence is now called TBD Lab. The group is spearheading work on the latest version of its Llama large language model. And that's your TNB Tech Minute. Join us again this afternoon for more.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Thinking of Buying Alibaba Stock? Here's 1 Green Flag and 1 Red Flag.
Key Points AI cloud could be the answer to Alibaba's next phase of growth. But core e-commerce is still dragging. Investors should have the right expectations when investing in the stock. 10 stocks we like better than Alibaba Group › Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) was once the crown jewel of China's internet economy. Today, it's more complicated. The e-commerce giant has faced regulatory crackdowns, weakening Chinese consumer marketing, and fierce competition from fast-moving rivals like Pinduoduo and Douyin. Yet beneath the surface, Alibaba is quietly undergoing a significant transformation -- one that could define its next decade. For investors considering the stock today, here's one green flag that signals long-term potential, and one red flag that still casts a shadow. Green flag: AI and cloud could rewrite Alibaba's growth story Alibaba is no longer content with being just an e-commerce platform. Its most ambitious bet today is on becoming an artificial intelligence (AI)-native enterprise -- and the heart of that shift lies in Alibaba Cloud. Once seen as a lower-margin, China-centric hosting business, Alibaba Cloud has repositioned itself around artificial intelligence. At the core of this transition is its integration with Qwen -- Alibaba's open-source large language model (LLM), which significantly expands the platform's reach beyond just cloud infrastructure. Qwen itself is no lightweight. The latest version, Qwen3, rivals the performance of OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini in several benchmark tasks. But that's just one part of the story. The most significant strategic move that Alibaba Cloud has undertaken for Qwen is to make it open-source, inviting anyone to leverage its model to build their own AI applications. This open AI strategy positions Alibaba Cloud to expand beyond China into emerging markets and Southeast Asia, especially in markets where U.S. tech dominance is weaker. As developers build on Qwen, they will naturally utilize other services offered by Alibaba. In other words, Alibaba Cloud aims to become a full-stack AI ecosystem for developers and businesses. Besides investing in Qwen, Alibaba Cloud is also doubling down on its investment in core infrastructure, aiming to invest around $50 billion in the next three years. This planned investment will exceed Alibaba's total AI and cloud spending over the past decade, demonstrating the company's commitment to becoming a leading AI cloud provider. If successful, AI and cloud computing could become Alibaba's growth driver for the next decade, just as AWS is now a key growth driver for Amazon. Red flag: Core e-commerce is still struggling to regain its past glory While AI captures investor attention, Alibaba's core revenue continues to come from domestic commerce. In fiscal year 2025 (ended March 31), this segment accounted for 45% of revenue and 113% of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA) -- a sign that Alibaba's profits remain heavily dependent on its e-commerce operations. Note that EBITA was 113% since other segments recorded a combined loss in 2024. But growth is sluggish. In fiscal year 2025, ended March 31, 2025, Taobao and Tmall revenue grew just 3%, as consumer sentiment in China remained soft amid a weak economic backdrop and ongoing geopolitical tensions. At the same time, Alibaba is facing intense competition from Pinduoduo's low-price strategy and Douyin's short video commerce -- both of which are quickly capturing market share. Alibaba has attempted to respond by incorporating AI into its shopping experiences and intensifying efforts to reengage merchants and users. Encouragingly, domestic e-commerce revenue grew 9% year over year in the March 2025 quarter -- a notable improvement from the full-year trend. If Alibaba can sustain its execution, it can continue to ride the tailwinds of a growing GDP per capita and a growing retail industry. Still, Alibaba has to prove it can sustain this momentum. The structural pressures -- from competition to shifts in consumer behavior -- won't disappear overnight. What does it mean for investors? Alibaba is at a crossroads. On one hand, it's laying the foundation for long-term success through open-source AI, cloud infrastructure, and international expansion. On the other hand, its dominant Chinese e-commerce business is facing challenges that may persist for some time. For investors looking for short-term upside, there are cleaner growth stories elsewhere. However, those willing to wait for the AI flywheel to turn and who believe Alibaba can navigate China's evolving economic landscape may find this to be an underappreciated opportunity. Either way, Alibaba deserves a spot on your radar. Should you invest $1,000 in Alibaba Group right now? Before you buy stock in Alibaba Group, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Alibaba Group wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,427!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,119,863!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,060% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 4, 2025 Lawrence Nga has positions in Alibaba Group and PDD Holdings. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Thinking of Buying Alibaba Stock? Here's 1 Green Flag and 1 Red Flag. was originally published by The Motley Fool
