The problem with China's policy on retaliation is exemplified here. The West thinks China's rare earths restrictions are unprovoked when it should've happened earlier like when the US put sanction on semiconductors being sold to China. I don't buy that bull that it was because China didn't have helium. It's not stopping China when they're saying China has a quartz supply problem that the US can exploit. Nothing has change from back then except that countries like Japan are actually less dependent on China for rare earth magnets. China still holds a commanding control of the supply. This is what Chinese don't get about Westerners where if you don't "retaliate" in kind immediately, the status quo to them become the norm and if you try to change it later, you're the criminal. It's just like how the West stereotypes Asian women as being their sexual servants. So when a white man goes out on a date with an Asian woman and she doesn't immediately live the stereotype for him, he thinks he's the victim of racism. It's his right to have Asian women serve him and if she doesn't do it, you're violated his rights. Then I remember hearing how minorities in the US would complain where's the Asian women for them to serve them sexually like they are a commodity to be distributed. You say nothing, do nothing... they think that's the norm. And you don't see white women, the self-anointed champion of women's rights doing anything because they think it's cultural, never mind that hasn't stopped them from criticizing and wanting action against countries that they see as treating women as less. Look at how much faith Asians give Westerners that they'll do the right thing on their own. The West also has a saying, "No good deed goes unpunished." What stops a Westerner from doing wrong? Severe consequences. You think a Pavlovian dog knows causality after a year of dissociation?