The U.S.-China trade war’s 90-day pause was 70 years in the making
Last month, the Trump administration launched an unprecedented trade war against China by announcing an amazing tariff of 145 % on Chinese imports. China responded by playing Hardbal. A 125 % mutual tariff imposed on American goods. While the previous escalations have witnessed that China urges dialogue and cooperation, this time’s response was a challenge. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that it is “ready to fight to the end.”
At the end of last week, optics changed dramatically. The United States and China agreed to a 90 -day stand for their commercial war, as the mutual collective tariff was retracted to 30 % by the United States and 10 % by China. This result did not surprise us. As it turned out, Beijing has his possession. ACE is the global hegemony of China in critical materials.
The Chinese strategy ACE was not overnight. It has begun with a heavy investment in human capital, which is confirmed by China as a global pioneer in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Just two decades ago, China in only three of 64 fields of critical technology led, while the United States took control of 60, according to critical technology trackers at the Australian Institute of Strategic policy (ASPI). Since then, the tables have turned. Today, China has taken the initiative in 57 of these fields, as the United States is now leading in only seven.
Not only does the newly discovered stem in China the policies driven by the state, but also by the economic elites in China, a young and dynamic group that is often born rural and learns globally. According to The World Elite database, 34 % of the economic elites in China studied engineering, has gained experience in areas such as material science, robots and space.
While China has recently become dominant in STEM fields, it has long dominated what one of us called the three MS: mining, metal engineering, metal engineering, materials science and engineering. China’s dominance in the three MS is very important because it supports extraction, processing and application of critical minerals that work on modern technology and national security.
China’s commitment to blurring, more specifically, allows the three MS to exercise the force near monopoly over rare ground elements and critical materials. Today, China controls about 70 % of rare Earth mining and more than 90 % of processing capacity around the world. This is important because the rare ground elements (ReES), a group of 17 minerals, are necessary for many technologies, from consumer electronics to military technology. The neodium magnets pay wind turbines abroad and electric cars, while Europium and Terbium lights up LED screens and smart phone screens.
When it comes to defense, the risks are higher. In fact, a F-35 fighter plane requires more than 900 pounds of rare ground, consumes a destroyer Arleigh Burke DDG-51 5200 pounds, consumes a Virginia submarine over 9200 pounds. It is not surprising that 23 retired American generals and administrators are pressured on roads and means in the US House of Representatives to protect tax exemptions for critical metal projects.
If the ability to overcome the United States and the West not to the dominance of China to the rare land is not bad enough, the US Geological Survey said in March that out of 44 critical minerals, such as Antimony, Chrome, Graphite, Lithium, titanium, and Vanadium, China led 30 production.
China has been more than 70 years. It dates back to 1950, when the Chinese geologists discovered the deposit of Bian Oppo in the inner Mongolia, one of the largest light earth reserves in the world. In 1972, Professor of Beijing University, Shu Shu Guangoxian, a coach of the University of Colombia, a major breakthrough when he developed a “waterfall extraction theory”. This was called “Chinese shock” by Western observers. It allowed China to extract rare land at a quarter of the West cost.
In 1975, China gave ambition to its ambitions by establishing a group of rare national land development and applications, and laying the foundation for long -term strategic planning. By 1991, four rare ground elements were appointed as protected minerals, and foreign ownership restrictions and investments were restricted. In 2001, China’s tenth -year plan strengthened this approach by narrating the rare land as a national development goal. This strategic focus was sharpened on October 1, 2024, when the State Council carried out “rare land management regulations”. These new rules have strengthened government control of exploring, processing and exporting rare ground minerals. Another indicated that China is looking at rare land not only as economic assets, but as political tools.
The decisive physical advantage of China is one punch that exceeds its limits. For one reason, anyone who wants to treat rare land materials must send them to China. In addition, over the past two decades, Beijing has strategically invested in critical material projects all over the world. For example, in Brazil, Chinese companies have obtained agreements of suspension for almost all the output of the Serra Verde project, which include noodimium, Prayodymium, Terbium, and Dysprosium. In Greenland, SHINGHE Resources is partially owned in China a minority stake in the Kvanefjeld mine, which contains 1.5 million metric tons of rare Earth oxides. In Africa, Chinese companies control 70 % of mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and have agreements for the Nagalla Earth Project in Tanzania. Even in the United States, Shenghe Resources has a 7.7 % stake in the Mounty Pass Mounty Mounts, a mockery of mockery as the best hope in the United States to overcome China suffocating on rare Earth.
China is well aware of the strategic ACE in the Trump administration’s trade war. For example, in 1992, the famous Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping declared, “The Middle East has oil; China has a rare land.” Moreover, China knows how to use its hegemony. In 2010, amid a dispute over the Dio/Senkaku Islands, China suddenly cut rare land exports to Japan for two months. The effect was deep: Japan, which relied on China for more than 80 % of rare Earth imports, faced severe disturbances. The price of serum oxide, a major rare ground compound, increased by 660 %. Electronics sector in Japan, including companies such as Sony and Panasonic, which reaches a 30 % increase in ingredients due to the siege. then, In 2023, Beijing adheres exports of gallium and germanium – critical to semiconductors and missile systems – in response to American restrictions on Chinese access to advanced chips technology. In 2024, China escalated more and imposed export controls on seven additional rare Earth elements. This screws stressed the global supply chains. Recently, in December 2024, China has fully embarked on Antimon’s exports, which prompted more than 134 %.
Only last month, in response to President Trump, China used a rare land crane to pursue American auto companies. China has done this by restricting rare Earth exports such as Dysprosium, which is used in electric car magnet, and by asking American companies to apply for export licenses in a period of months. This procedure caused panic among car manufacturers. In fact, as Elon Musk indicated last month, the export of China has stopped on the magnet that contains rare heavy Earth, Tesla plans to manufacture Optimus robots, highlighting the strategic importance of this magnet in advanced technology. These moves show China’s readiness to armament near monopoly to confront the American trade aggression, with the possibility of disrupting American industries from electric cars to defense manufacturing.
China’s dominance of critical materials is no longer just goods. They are a strategic lever. It is clear that President Trump and the United States are playing with fire.
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Read more:
- China has stopped exporting the rare land for all, not only the United States, and cut critical materials for technology, cars, space, and defense
- The treatment of critical minerals will be equivalent to oil refineries in the nineteenth-century-at the moment of Rockefeller
- How can the critical minerals in China become a turning point in its trade conflict with the United States
- Mining has not evolved for decades. The United States must re -invent as China tightens its grip on critical minerals
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
2025-05-15 14:57:00
