China Begins Ban of Rare Earth Minerals to the US

From Legal Insurrection

The move comes a day after the Biden administration expanded curbs on the sale of advanced American technology to China.

Posted by Leslie Eastman

Legal Insurrection readers may recall my previous report on the Biden administration warning Beijing of its plans to update rules that curb shipments of AI chips and chipmaking tools to China.

Now, a day after Team Biden tightened Chinese access to advanced American technology, Chinese officials have ordered a halt to exporting several rare minerals to this country.

The ban signals Beijing’s willingness to engage in supply chain warfare by blocking the export of important components used to make valuable products, like weaponry and semiconductors.

Sales of gallium, germanium, antimony and so-called superhard materials to the United States would be halted immediately on the grounds that they have dual military and civilian uses, China’s Ministry of Commerce said. The export of graphite would also be subject to stricter review.

China is central to many global supply chains, but it generally refrained from clamping down on its own exports during the first Trump administration, preferring instead to take more limited actions like buying soybeans from Brazil instead of the United States. But senior Chinese officials are worried that President-elect Donald J. Trump plans more stringent policies during his coming term in office.

As Legal Insurrection readers know from my previous post, these minerals are key components of technologies and equipment we use regularly. China has already begun curbing exports through regulations and restrictions in the past few years.

China said in July 2023 it would require exporters to apply for licenses to send to the U.S. the strategically important materials such as gallium and germanium. In August, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said it would restrict exports of antimony, which is used in a wide range of products from batteries to weapons, and impose tighter controls on exports of graphite.

Such minerals are considered critical for national security. China is a major producer of antimony, which is used in flame retardants, batteries, night-vision goggles and nuclear weapon production, according to a 2021 U.S. International Trade Commission report.

The limits announced by Beijing on Tuesday also include exports of super-hard materials, such as diamonds and other synthetic materials that are not compressible and extremely dense. They are used in many industrial areas such as cutting tools, disc brakes and protective coatings. The licensing requirements that China announced in August also covered smelting and separation technology and machinery and other items related to such super-hard materials.

China is the biggest global source of gallium and germanium, which are produced in small amounts but are needed to make computer chips for mobile phones, cars and other products, as well as solar panels and military technology.

China is a major global source of these materials, accounting for:

• 98.8% of refined gallium production
• 59.2% of refined germanium output
• 48% of globally mined antimony

Of course, it would be on-brand for Team Biden to heat up a war just before President-Elect Donald Trump returns to office, albeit a trade one.

China issued the new ban just two days after the U.S. curbed exports to 140 companies in China’s semiconductor industry. The U.S. crackdown — the third in three years — was aimed at stymieing China’s ability to advance artificial intelligence technologies for military applications.

The escalating tit-for-tat economic measures by Washington and Beijing come weeks before the swearing in of President-elect Donald Trump for his second term. During his first term, Trump launched a trade war with China, and he’s threatened to escalate the standoff once again with a new 10% blanket tariff on all Chinese imports once he returns to office.

“It comes as no surprise that China has responded to the increasing restrictions by American authorities, current and imminent, with its own restrictions on the supply of these strategic minerals,” Peter Arkell, chairman of the Global Mining Association of China, told Reuters. “It’s a trade war that has no winners.”

I am consoled by two facts:

1) Over 2 Billion Metric Tons of Rare Earth Minerals Discovered in Wyoming.
2) Native American racialist and eco-activist Deb Haaland will no longer be in charge of the Department of the Interior starting January 2025. Therefore, Americans will have access to their own supply of rare earth minerals.

Who knows? Trump may be able to sweeten the deal and get Denmark to sell us Greenland, which would alleviate our need for China even father.