Strategic leverage: Trade war enters rare earths phase

In Beijing’s version of the trade war, the United States is the bully and China is the victim — a rising power trying to protect the global economy while Washington unfairly hurls tariffs and technology bans its way.

That narrative is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile with the image emerging in recent days: China as an industrial juggernaut, poised to utilise its control over minerals essential to modern manufacturing against any country or company that stands in its way.

China mines and processes much of the world’s rare earths, needed for computer chips, electric vehicles and fighter jets. In retaliation against President Donald Trump’s tariffs and technology restrictions, Beijing has introduced a system that would control the trade of a huge swath of tech products worldwide