For the second time this week, western, English-language media outlets are reporting about rumblings within the Chinese Communist Party leadership about imposing new export controls on so-called “rare-earth metals” The news, first reported earlier this week in the FT, could quickly hobble the US defense industry.
While Bloomberg seemed to confirm the FT’s report about Beijing launching a “review” of its rare-earth export policies, the BBG reporters also took things a step further by suggesting that the Chinese government was merely trying to keep pressure on President Joe Biden now that ‘standing up to China’ has apparently become a bipartisan issue in the US.
All of this comes after Beijing reportedly readied a plan to restrict exports of the metals to the US back in 2019, when the US and China were still dealing with the fallout from Trump’s trade war.
To be sure, Beijing has already tried weaponizing rare earths when it slapped US defense contractor Lockheed Martin with sanctions.