Heavy Metal Politics: Rare Earths Are the New Missiles
Beijing tightens its grip on the global rare earth supply chain in retaliation to U.S. tariffs, signaling a new front in the economic standoff.
Editorial Team (ET)May 9, 2025
In a bold geopolitical countermove, China has fired back at sweeping US tariffs by tightening its grip on the global supply of rare earth elements—an essential cluster of minerals powering everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to advanced military hardware. As of April 4, 2025, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced that seven categories of medium and heavy rare earths will be added to its export control list, potentially disrupting global supply chains and escalating an already volatile trade war.
The targeted minerals include samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium—materials critical to the energy transition, electronics, and defense sectors. While China has stopped short of an outright export ban, the move signals a serious tightening of the noose on global access to minerals the United States and its allies cannot easily replace.
Why Rare Earths Matter
Rare earths are the unsung heroes of modern technology. Despite their name, they’re not rare in terms of abundance but are rarely found in concentrated deposits, making their extraction and refinement both expensive and environmentally taxing. What sets China apart is not just its mineral wealth, but its dominance in the processing and refining of rare earths—a dirty, complex, and highly regulated process that the West has largely outsourced.
China currently accounts for roughly 90% of the world’s refined rare earth production. From 2019 to 2022, three-quarters of all rare earths imported into the United States originated from China. That dependency has now become a strategic vulnerability, and Beijing knows it.
Trump’s Tariffs Spark the Fuse
President Donald Trump’s decision to ratchet tariffs on most Chinese imports to 54% lit the fuse on what is shaping up to be an economic conflict rooted not only in trade imbalance but also in strategic resource control. Beijing’s response is as much symbolic as it is substantive. By leveraging its dominance over rare earth elements, China is sending a clear message: if Washington wants to play hardball, Beijing is more than ready.
While the new Chinese export controls are broad and apply globally, their intended target is unmistakably the United States. Restricting access to these vital materials could severely hinder American industries, especially those tied to green energy and defense.
Strategic Weaponization of Critical Minerals
China has proven time and again that it’s willing to weaponize its control over strategic resources. The move to limit rare earth exports echoes a similar playbook used last year when China cut off antimony exports to Europe following geopolitical tensions. It’s a tactic rooted in long-term planning. While many countries are only now waking up to the importance of securing critical mineral supply chains, China has been quietly consolidating control for decades.
These minerals are embedded deep in the production of magnets for wind turbines, batteries for electric cars, and components for missiles and fighter jets. The ripple effect of curtailing their supply could upend not just industrial production but also national security interests.
Quotas, Licenses, and the Power to Choke Supply
Though China hasn’t implemented a complete export ban, the power to restrict the flow of rare earths lies in its hands through licensing. Beijing can simply issue fewer export licenses or delay them indefinitely—effectively choking off supply without ever needing to say the word “ban.” This form of soft power projection allows China to maintain plausible deniability while still exerting maximum pressure.
History provides a chilling precedent. In 2010, during a maritime dispute with Japan, China abruptly halted rare earth shipments to the island nation, causing prices to skyrocket and sending global supply chains into panic mode. The playbook remains the same, but the stakes today are even higher.
America’s Strategic Blind Spot
The United States has known for years that its dependence on China for rare earths is a strategic liability. Despite several congressional hearings, military reports, and even proposed funding for domestic rare earth projects, the country has done little to insulate itself from this dependency.
Efforts to revive rare earth mining in the U.S.—such as the Mountain Pass mine in California—have faced bureaucratic delays, environmental pushback, and a lack of refining capacity. Without the ability to process rare earths domestically, raw materials are often still sent to China for refinement, ironically deepening the reliance the U.S. seeks to break.
The Global Domino Effect
This isn’t just a U.S.-China story. China’s export controls impact every nation that relies on these materials, including key American allies in Europe, Asia, and Oceania. The ripple effect across global industries could be significant. Automakers may face delays in battery production. Wind farm projects could be slowed down. Even smartphone manufacturers may be forced to reconfigure supply chains.
This global interconnectivity makes China’s move even more potent. It creates a shared pressure point among Western nations and could potentially drive wedges between allies as they compete for limited supplies.
Rising Urgency to Diversify Supply Chains
The latest restrictions underscore the urgent need for diversification in critical mineral sourcing. The United States, Canada, Australia, and European nations have all made noise about securing alternative sources of rare earths, but progress has been slow. Permitting processes, environmental concerns, and lack of refining infrastructure remain significant bottlenecks.
China’s export controls could finally push these countries into action. Strategic stockpiling, investment in domestic mining and refining, and new alliances with mineral-rich nations like Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam are likely to accelerate.
Geopolitics Meets Green Energy
This clash isn’t just about trade—it’s about the future of energy. As the world shifts toward decarbonization, rare earths are becoming the new oil. They’re the lifeblood of electric vehicles, wind turbines, and energy storage systems. Without a secure supply, the transition to renewable energy slows, and climate goals become harder to meet.
In throttling rare earth exports, China is effectively holding a spanner to the gears of global green progress. For the United States and its allies, it’s a wake-up call they can’t afford to ignore.
Conclusion: A Turning Point in Economic Warfare
What we’re witnessing isn’t a skirmish—it’s a new phase of economic warfare where trade policies and resource control intersect with geopolitics and national security. China’s rare earth export controls mark a significant escalation in its response to U.S. tariffs and serve as a powerful reminder of its leverage in the global economic order.
If the U.S. and its allies want to counter this pressure, they’ll need more than rhetoric. They’ll need a coordinated, well-funded, and expedited strategy to break free from rare earth dependence and reclaim control over the minerals that shape our future.
