Last week, China’s Ministry of Commerce published a document that went by the name of “announcement No. 62 of 2025”.
But this wasn’t just any bureaucratic missive. It has rocked the fragile tariffs truce with the US.
The announcement detailed sweeping new curbs on its rare earth exports, in a move that tightens Beijing’s grip on the global supply of the critical minerals - and reminded Donald Trump just how much leverage China holds in the trade war.
China has a near-monopoly in the processing of rare earths - crucial for the production of everything from smartphones to fighter jets.
PSA: rare earth’s aren’t rare. It’s the separation from each other and the bulk of earth that makes it cumbersome. It’s basically processing capacity that China has today.
Invest in local processing plants.
China spent the last 2 decades investing in infrastructure, energy, heavy industry and manufacturing while we were… doing what exactly? Selling smartphone apps to each other, pumping crypto, gig economy and letting private equity gut our services?
Yes, resource availability isn’t the issue, and “just invest more” has some massive hurdles:
- China has over 25,000 patents in the field of rare earths
- China doesn’t have the strict environmental-protection regulations like much of the rest of the world. It keeps the price very low, but at great cost to its environment from toxic run-off and the like
- Complex, expensive solvent extraction processes require extensive experience that China is well ahead of the rest of the world on
- China has a highly integrated supply chain from mining to finished product manufacturing
All these mean any processing outside of China is going to be incredibly expensive and competitively unprofitable. It’s not impossible to do, and removing dependence from China is probably worth it, but it’s going to take a lot of capital and time to achieve and sustain.
How many years does it take to get a processing plant up and running? Longer than Donald has to live, I’ll bet.
Probably, considering the average lifespan of a dementia patient. However, processing capacity could be built quickly* if it were a priority. It’s just that the private sector isn’t capable of creating or funding that priority on its own, so a competent government is required.
*years rather than decades
Well, since they’re disappearing all of the laborers…
I guess the good news is that he only has 2 years or less left?
Can’t we just do tariffs that cripple our already dwindling industrial capacity and give tax cuts to rich people who don’t need them?
Sure, but like, they sound rare. It’s right in the name. That’s why dumbass Trumpo behaves like China is hoarding rare jewels from him and cries for Mommy to do something.
The reality is that China is about the only country willing to process the rare earth minerals because of how incredibly toxic it is to the local populace. Many countries could choose to invest in processing plants but are unwilling to subject their citizens to the cancers they invariably cause.
Maybe that’s too generous. The wealthy don’t want them around, and it’s bad business to get your labor force unable to work.
I don’t know if environmental protection is high on trump’s list, along with the welfare of ‘illegal migrants’.
Invest in local processing plants.
Do you want environmental degradation and pollution with processing rare earths? Because that’s the main reason why many countries avoid doing it because it will be met with opposition from their electorates.
That’s only because we want cheap rare earths. If we wanted rare earth’s without the environmental fallout, it would be expensive even if done in China. We’re simply offloading our environmental waste to others.
Donald Trump is a goddamn fucking moron
True. IIRC during his first administration he backed the U.S. out of the international treaty that governed minig ocean floor rare earth deposits because the U.S. didn’t have a dispropotionate amount of power compared to other treaty signatories.
Wasn’t very hard to find. Trump hasn’t shut up about it since he got elected.
Not hard to find, but hard to properly leverage.
This is the result of a multi-year effort by China to insulate themselves from very specific retaliatory measures i.e. leverage the USA had over them, but not any longer.
Wild that China is the only one that learned from Trump in 2016, and prepare for what was coming.
Of course, most of that is what China’s been doing anyway for a couple decades, so that may be more coincidental.
it was patently obvious from the beginning of his “I want Canada and Greenland RIGHT NOW!” phase.
That’s just China’s goto for any international being, as they’re literally the only ones capable/willing of processing them.
If only we knew how to… I dunno… invest in something other than Lithium. Something ubiquitous and cheap… like sodium.
Nahhhh
Nahhhh
*angry upvote
Nahhhh
I see what you did there
Your point is valid but less relevant. Lithium is an alkali metal found in different sources than rare earths, with Australia and South America producing the most.
Rare earths are expensive to refine which is why western mines and refineries have been outcompeted by China. If we were to subsidise local production we’d have an abundance, e.g. from Scandinavia.
Expensive to process safely and in an ecologically-conscious manner. Aka expensive in money but it’s important to note the environmental damage these processing plants can do when unregulated.
They could’ve asked him about his buddy pedo Jeff as well. He gets real pissy about that
Sounds extremely rational in the context of US trade policies.
It’s not new, and it’s known to China and any half-intelligent observer forever. Rare earths are the only lever China has on US. US on the other hand has a chokehold on China’s throat, its economic future and present: AI chips, and the largest single export market for China’s economic engine while its economy falters - its exports. Trump has the leverage, and he’s bargaining hard.
Mit dem Angriff Steiners wird das alles in Ordnung kommen.
You’re either a propaganda bot or someone facing propaganda toxicity.
You are sadly not well informed on the global trade and economics. Read my comment history. I don’t like China or Trump. Both are authoritarian regimes and fascists. I suppose that makes you in favor of China and a Chinese bot on a Western discussion board?
Ok, propaganda bot
your name, Xulai is Chinese isn’t it? You need to be more clever about faking yourself as a “Westerner” Chinese bot.
