Beijing’s latest curbs have gone far beyond simply limiting exports of raw materials. In April this year, China placed seven rare earth elements under export licensing, and in October, it expanded the list to include five more, including holmium, erbium and europium, while also extending controls to the equipment and technology used to mine, refine, and manufacture magnets. It’s a sweeping move that doesn’t just block supplies to the US but also prevents other countries from acting as alternative routes to ship rare earths to America. Washington’s anxiety stems from this deeper reality: China isn’t merely restricting exports, it’s ring-fencing the entire ecosystem from mines and processing plants to the machinery that makes the refining possible. And with a monopoly, China’s move is akin to a military blockade that threatens economies of not just one nation, but the whole world.

For decades, China has been the invisible engine of the world’s high-tech economy, processing over 90 per cent of global rare earths and producing nearly all of the world’s high-performance magnets. These materials power the modern world from electric vehicle motors and wind turbines to smartphones, satellites, fighter jets and missile guidance systems. The irony is that rare earths aren’t actually rare. They’re found across continents, including in India, Australia, and the United States. What’s rare is the expertise, scale, and infrastructure to refine and separate them and that’s where China’s dominance is absolute.

It is not hard to stumble upon “rare earth reserves", but it is hard to start mining those rare earths, and doubly hard to refine them—a process that demands technological expertise, not to mention the environmental cost addressing which can rake up overall costs even more. China invested early in rare earths with a higher tolerance for the associated toxicity and the West was happy to........

© News18