US Ban on Xinjiang cotton is likely reducing Western artillery shell production by the military industrial complex 美國對新疆棉花的禁令可能會減少軍工複合體的西方砲彈產量
The US and EU are struggling to manufacture enough shells and munitions for their proxy war in the Ukraine. Among other things, this is related to a shortage of propellants for the munitions.
Remember, the US banned Chinese cotton–on the presumption of “slave labor” of Uighurs.
https://www.state.gov/xinjiang-supply-chain-business-advisory/
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6256
But this doesn’t “prevent” “slave labor”, because there is none. Uighurs are not oppressed in China, and moreover, Cotton in XJ is harvested mechanically.
It does, however, undermine the US capacity to wage wars.
Why?
Well, wars need munitions, such as shells, rockets, and bullets. These munitions require a propellant to fire the munitions. What is the most commonly used propellant? Nitrocellulose*, also known as guncotton.
What do you need to make guncotton? Take a guess….yes, cotton. (Cotton is 90% cellulose).
Where does the world get a lot (21%) of cotton from?
Take a guess…yes, China.
And where is Chinese cotton grown?
Yes, Xinjiang produces 87% of Chinese cotton.
Still, there are 80 other countries that produce some cotton. Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and many others. But wait! China needs to import cotton for its own domestic industries–it meets only 70% of its internal demand. And because China is banned from exporting clothing with XJ cotton to the US & US-subjugated vassals, it must import even more from other countries. That means there is less raw cotton for the rest of the world, and thus less cellulose for US and EU munitions factories.
Now, after passing this legislation, the West is bitching that China is withholding cotton from them, and that cotton cellulose is hard to find.
Well, what did you expect by sanctioning the export of Chinese cotton and taking 21% of cotton off the global market?
But really, what this tells us is that the US must secretly be a pacifist state. Why else would it do something so stupid and self contradictory?
Why else would it serve such a puffball to the Chinese–imposing US Sanctions that undermine US/Western capacity to wage war against them?
Are the authors of the bill traitors or pacifists? I shudder to think that they are idiots who don’t understand basic science and business.
The Onion meme: “China will sit back and watch the US destroy itself”, applies here.
*Cellulose/Nitrocellulose is also used in celluloid, nail polish, ping pong and billiard balls, and countless other household items (diapers, pads, etc.). Cellulose can be extracted from wood pulp, and recycled paper. Still, expect shortages and price hikes in those items, too.
https://forum.cartridgecollectors.org/t/gunpowder-a-possible-shortage/58221/16
“… a huge percentage of the nitrocellulose used to make gunpowder historically came from China and Russia, however according to my conversations with industry partners, the Chinese manufacturers who historically were the biggest suppliers at over 30% of the market share are no longer willing to ship raw nitrocellulose to the USA or NATO member countries in attempt to reduce the USA & NATO’s ability to supply Ukrainian forces with artillery shells, and of course Russia who historically was the 2nd biggest supplier is out of the supply chain as well..”
Europe battles powder shortage to supply shells for Ukraine
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2024/03/03/2003814393
Paris (AFP) – Hard-to-find gunpowder is hindering Europe’s scramble to provide hundreds of thousands of shells for Ukraine’s defensive effort against Russian invaders, with solutions only starting to emerge.
Gunpowder goes into propellant charges that hurl artillery shells — such as the NATO-standard 155-millimetre projectiles used in many guns sent to Ukraine — over distances of tens of kilometres.
Europe counts a very small number of powder producers, said Jean-Paul Maulny, deputy director of France’s Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS).
“This is one of the bottlenecks for munitions,” he added. “The top question is the quantity of production.”
EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton told reporters in Paris Friday that the bloc also faced challenges finding the raw materials for gunpowder.
“To make powder, you need a specific kind of cotton, which mostly comes from China,” he said.
“Would you know it, deliveries of this cotton from China stopped as if by chance a few months ago,” Breton added.
China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts, and their strategic partnership has grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine.
In Russia this week, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong declared relations “are at their best period in history”.
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