Xi puts the squeeze on Trump before critical talks
China’s move to weaponize rare earths is ‘strategic’ and is aimed at ‘hindering’ the US and its allies
Beijing has launched an economic war against Washington and its shaky alliance of leading democracies across the world after weaponizing rare earth minerals.
Firing a shot across the bow of the United States this week, China announced it would impose “export controls” on crucial resources under “national security” concerns.
The move by Chinese leader Xi Jinping has increased pressure on US President Donald Trump ahead of their planned meeting in South Korea later this month.
“The timing of this new policy is strategic,” Gracelin Baskaran, the director of the minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.
“China just put some new negotiation pawns on the table,” she told the Financial Times today, adding it was aimed at “hindering” the US and its allies.
What this means:
- Rare earths and magnets have powered the technological revolution from smartphones to electric vehicles and advanced fighter jets.
- China has an 85% stranglehold on processing these minerals and a grip of more than 90% on magnet production.
The situation in the US has only deteriorated since then.
Delve deeper: “They’re in every form of defense technology. They’re in warships, missiles, lasers, tanks, satellites, drones – in everything,” Baskaran told the Foreign Policy magazine in an August interview.
Big picture: General Secretary Xi’s timing is impeccable amid widespread unrest in the US about Trump’s MAGA policies and his lurch towards authoritarianism. Already, there is a bitter battle being waged for the heart and soul of the American republic.
Between the lines: “A survey of more than 500 political scientists [found] that the vast majority [thought] the United States [was] moving swiftly from liberal democracy toward some form of authoritarianism,” NPR, or National Public Radio, reported in April.
Bottom line: The situation in the US has only deteriorated since then, fanned by domestic turmoil and overseas bewilderment in the capitals of America’s allies.
China Factor comment: Yet this week, Trump was crowing about his TikTok deal with China, a short video site that helped put him in the White House. Days later, Xi came up with the ultimate response, a clampdown on the rare earths that make TikTok and the US tick.