As U.S. President Donald Trump turns up the tariff heat on China, Beijing is targeting ever more of the United States’ critical material supply chains.
Weird and wonderful metals such as antimony, gallium and germanium have already been sucked into the escalating trade war with China restricting exports and banning sales to the United States. Beijing has just raised the mineral threat another level by adding seven rare earths to its dual-use list of restricted exports.
Rare earths are China’s ultimate metallic weapon. The country has a vice-like grip on every stage of the global supply chain from mining to processing to manufacturing the permanent magnets that power laptops, electric vehicles and fighter jets.
For the rest of this article: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-primes-rare-earths-weapon-trade-war-escalates-andy-home-2025-04-10/