2w ago

China has found Trump's pain point - rare earths

www.bbc.com

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.

45 comments

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?
  
  You are correct but also are missing something. As far as tech services go, the US is (but rapidly decline as due to Trump) a titan. But like I said, right now and especially in the last 10 years they have been going through some extremely serious enshitification of the internet, internet services, and a plethora of other stuff. As far as I am concerned the past 10 years have been extremely static in a lot of development.
- 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?
- 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.
  
  ... any processing outside of China is going to be incredibly expensive and competitively unprofitable.
  China itself is mining rare earths abroad such as in Myanmar and in Indonesia ...
  We urgently needed transparent supply chains ...
- 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.
- 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?
- So that capability and competency is domestic. The competitive edge is in being independent.
  It would also be very cheap if local production were held to the same environmental and labour standards as it is there.
  If we are fine with others shouldering the environmental and labour burdens for our cheap products, we should be fine with doing it ourselves.
  If we are not, we should not be buying products that don't adhere to our standards.
- 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.
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.
- I’ll be honest, I missed it purely because of his verbal diarrhoea.
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
  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.
  
  Nahhhh
  *angry upvote
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.
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.
- 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?
- Mit dem Angriff Steiners wird das alles in Ordnung kommen.

45 comments