Those—like the two German cabinet ministers of Foreign Relations and Economics (Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, Greens) or the Minister of Education (Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Free Democrat)—who are in the forefront of the anti-China alignment, will, if not prevented, cause immense damage to Germany’s industry. If confronted with new economic and political sanctions, China may apply its new law, effective since August 1, implying export bans on materials that are rated as “strategic.”
One of those materials is the special metal gallium, of which China is the leading producer on a global scale. It is used primarily in the form of two chemical compounds: gallium nitride and gallium arsenide (for lasers and high-frequency components like cell phone distribution stations or satellite communications). Electrons can move extremely-fast in it, therefore gallium is the ideal material when extremely high frequencies have to be achieved.
Gallium nitride lasers can also be used for welding copper.
