On April 4, China’s Ministry of Commerce put export restrictions on seven rare earth elements (REEs). It is easy to scratch one’s head when restrictions are put on things called samarium, scandium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, and lutetium but such elements are important components, particularly the magnets made with them that perform well at high temperatures (these magnets have 15 times the force of conventional iron magnets), of everything from phones, to hard drives, to electric vehicles, to flat screen TVs, to jet engines, to radar and sonar systems (i.e. military uses, no doubt on the minds of some policy makers. A single F-35 fighter jet uses 900 pounds of rare earth metals). There are 17 rare earths in all.

This is hardly the first time the Chinese government (CPP) has done this kind of thing. In July 2023, China announced it would restrict the export of gallon and germanium, materials used mostly on making solar panels and semi-conductors. Back in September 2010, China imposed an embargo on rare earth exports to Japan in the aftermath of a Chinese fishing boat colliding with two Japanese coastguard vessels (the captain of the fishing boat was arrested). The embargo lasted seven weeks. This new restriction is not an outright ban. Rather firms are now required to apply for an export license (16 U.S. entities were put on an export control list for dual-use materials). More of a slowdown than a ban. This, of course, is in response to Trump’s tariff mania. It appears most companies in the U.S. have some kind of stockpile available for the moment or at least the option to purchase the materials from companies that do.

Despite the name ‘rare earths’, rare earths are not especially scarce. The thing is they are usually scattered in low concentrations with other minerals and can be difficult and polluting to separate out into their pure forms. Whereas 30 years ago China was importing rare earths from the U.S., mining and, especially, processing are now dominated by companies in China. China currently produces 69 percent of........

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