![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/244e4d25-8f60-47af-9f39-441a3d2852dd.jpg.webp.webp\")
Danielle KayeNew York business reporter<\/p>\n
A backdrop of US-China tensions over rare earthspublished at 16:16 BST<\/p>\n
16:16 BST<\/p>\n
Danielle Kaye
New York business reporter<\/p>\n
Relying heavily on
\nChina for key minerals is a mounting risk for the US.<\/p>\n
China processes
\naround 90% of the world’s rare earths and magnets – essential components of the
\nglobal tech supply chain that go into everything from cars to smartphones. Many
\nUS firms depend on imports of the materials from China.<\/p>\n
That’s why Beijing’s
\nrecent moves to tighten its grip over rare earth exports have jolted US
\nofficials, hitting a major pain point for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
China is leveraging
\nits near monopoly on the sector as a bargaining chip in trade talks with
\nWashington. Earlier this month, Beijing formalised rules mean foreign companies
\nwill need the Chinese government’s approval to export products with even small
\namounts of rare earths and must explain their intended use. In response, US
\nPresident Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional 100% tariff on
\nChinese goods and put export controls on key software.<\/p>\n
US Treasury
\nSecretary Scott Bessent last week blasted China’s latest rare earth curbs. Some
\nUS car companies, he said, had already called the White House with concerns
\nabout a slowdown in supply.<\/p>\n
“If China wants
\nto be an unreliable partner to the world, then the world will have to
\ndecouple,” Bessent said, while still leaving the door open to negotiation.<\/p>\n
The backdrop of
\nrenewed fragility in the US-China trade partnership appears to be accelerating
\nthe Trump administration’s search for alternative sources of rare earths. That
\npresents an opening for Australia, which has large deposits of the minerals –
\nthough experts warn that its production infrastructure is still underdeveloped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A backdrop of US-China tensions over rare earthspublished at 16:16 BST 16:16 BST Danielle KayeNew York business reporter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-213484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}