Posted on 06/05/2025 7:27:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As U.S. tariffs tighten the screws on China’s export machine, Beijing is striking back with strategic precision. Export restrictions on rare earths are now Beijing’s latest move to break down European trade barriers and push back against escalating pressure from Washington.
In today’s global trade standoff, the gloves are off. The U.S. is wielding its market clout -- 25% of global consumption originates from the American domestic market. Anyone in the export business must deal with the United States. China, meanwhile, holds an current monopoly on rare earths -- and is making it clear it will not hesitate to weaponize that dominance. The stakes are rising, and national interests now override globalist courtesies.
No Friends -- Only Alliances
Europe is learning the hard way: in geopolitics, there are no friends, only temporary alliances. China’s tightened export controls on rare earth elements risk plunging Germany’s industrial sector into a severe resource crisis. With nearly 85% of global rare earth refining under its control, Beijing is the chief supplier of key metals like dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium -- critical for electric motors, medical tech, and defense systems.
Since April 2025, access to these raw materials has been restricted to licensed exporters only -- a de facto embargo. The fallout is immediate: several German manufacturers have already been forced to scale back operations. Others face complete shutdowns. Industrial metal prices continue climbing, and the fragility of global supply chains is now exposed in brutal detail. Europe’s resource dependency is becoming a major liability -- and a strategic weakness in the coming trade war negotiations.
Target: New Markets
China’s export curbs are a calculated pressure tactic in its standoff with both the U.S. and EU. Beijing is feeling the squeeze from the Trump administration’s hardline trade policy.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
People, you do not understand.
It’s not rare earth metals. IT IS ONE RARE EARTH METAL. Neodymium.
A motor spins because some number of amperes flows in a a coil of wire in a magnetic field. The reason we have cordless drills is not the lithium batteries. It is because the magnetic field became many times stronger than existed with iron magnets. So you don’t have to flow the same ampere total to get the same torque if you have a stronger B field (B is the usual symbol for magnetic field).
THIS IS EVERY SINGLE MOTOR. AC Compressors, every fan in your computer, EV motors (and in reverse, the alternators in gasoline cars), every motor. Every drill. Every saw. Every . . . everything.
The Chinese don’t care about pieces of printed paper from Treasury. They care that they have an item that defines society. They will send it to Russia. They will not send it anywhere that might transfer it to the US.
This “deal” upcoming is going to be crushing, because it would be foolish for China, after being demonized all this time, NOT TO BE CRUSHING.
Google NIOCORP. Trump needs to push hard for our own development of these metals.
OMEX (stock symbol) has the actual capability to mine some of those off of the seabeds. Company is making a profit already.
Stock symbol NB.
The whole “most favored nations” thing and the former strategic stockpile of materials needed for war are issues that need to be broadly discussed in regards to China.
I disagree. We are screwed over twice by DEMOCRATS, who created that insane processing chain.
We have plenty of rare earth in the USA.
Heck, we used to have near monopoly on them!
But the enviros and cheap Chinese supply made us shut this down!
Plus, we had several warnings. China use this as a weapon, but when somebody tries to get a production going elsewhere, they drove them out of business.
How can we and the rest of the world, be so idiotic!
Maybe, we should re-develop that capabilities and ban Chinese supply forever!
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