October 11, 2024
China gears up to weaponize rare earths in trade war
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China is the world's biggest producer of rare earths and supplies about 80 per cent of U.S. imports.
China is the world’s biggest producer of rare earths and supplies about 80 per cent of U.S. imports.

Beijing is gearing up to use its dominance of rare earths to hit back in its deepening trade war with Washington.

A flurry of Chinese media reports on Wednesday, including an editorial in the flagship newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, raised the prospect of the government cutting exports of the commodities that are critical in defence, energy, electronics and automobile sectors. China is the world’s biggest producer of rare earths and supplies about 80 per cent of U.S. imports.

The threat to weaponize strategic materials ratchets up the tension between the world’s two biggest economies before an expected meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump at the G-20 meeting next month. It shows how China is weighing its options after the U.S. blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co., cutting off the supply of American components it needs to make its smartphones and networking gear.

“China, as the dominant producer of rare earths, has shown in the past that it can use rare earths as a bargaining chip when it comes to multilateral negotiations,” said George Bauk, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Minerals Ltd., which is producing rare earth carbonate from a pilot-scale project in Western Australia.

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