In Call of Duty: Black Ops II players are tasked with taking down a terrorist leader that knocks the Chinese Stock exchange offline with a cyber attack, leading to the ban of rare earth elements exports from China, a conflict that isn’t as outlandish as gamers might expect.
The rare earth elements play an essential role in the iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones, ereaders and other gadgets manufacturing, and are a potential reason companies like Apple manufacture the iPad and iPhone in China.
This isn’t to say the U.S. and China will go to war over rare earth elements, but given that China controls an estimated 95-97% of all rare earth elements in a pit mine located in Nancheng, has lowered export quotas and reduced productionduring the past few years we may see an escalation in conflict.
Source: Gotta Be Mobile
By Josh Smith