Public sentiment on the US-China trade talks regarding rare earth minerals is predominantly negative, characterized by skepticism and criticism. A majority of comments criticize the US, particularly under the Trump administration, for hypocrisy and ineffective trade policies. Many believe China holds significant leverage due to its control over rare earth resources, while the US is viewed as lacking foresight and preparation. Some discussions also touch on India's limited role, highlighting a need for more self-reliance. This sentiment is coupled with frustration over perceived geopolitical maneuvering and diplomatic inadequacies.

United States

China

India

MP Materials' heavy rare earth elements (HREE) processing facility at Mountain Pass, California:  as of May 29, 2025, the facility was funded by a $35 million Department of Defense contract announced in February 2022.  Based on available information, the HREE processing facility at Mountain Pass is likely not yet fully operational.  Interestingly, the MP Materials mine does not have significant HREEs, only LREEs which they are successfully processing in a mine to magnet development.  Where will the ore to feed this HREE processing facility at Mountain Pass, CA come from?  Where will MP Materials get their HREEs in their mine to magnet supply chain?  Another wrinkle in this "domestic mine" is that a Chinese company, Shenghe Resources Holding Co. Ltd.,  has an approximately 8% stake in MP Materials.  Shenghe Resources Holding Co. Ltd., is a partially state-owned enterprise of the Government of China. This stake was reported as 7.7% to 9.9% in various sources from 2020 to 2022, with the most consistent figure being around 8% as of April 2022.

danieldeubank

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Original author:
Similar_Ad_2654

Original title: 
Will China Lift Its Rare Earth Export Controls?

Original link submission:
/r/Sino/comments/1krr3so/will_china_lift_its_rare_earth_export_controls/

Original text submission:
The China-U.S. joint statement following the tariff negotiations has raised hopes in the U.S. that China may lift its export controls on rare earth minerals, as China agreed to “take necessary measures to suspend or cancel non-tariff countermeasures against the U.S. introduced since April 2, 2025.” However, China’s recent crackdown on the smuggling of strategic minerals suggests that it is unlikely to ease export controls anytime soon.

On May 12, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce announced that China will launch coordinated effort to crack down strategic mineral smuggling. The spokesperson said that that since China imposed export controls on certain strategic minerals, some foreign entities have colluded with domestic lawbreakers in attempts to circumvent the measures through smuggling and other means. To curb such activities, the national export control coordination office held a meeting in China’s coastal city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, on May 9  and more enforcement actions is expected to follow.

The meeting clarified the division of responsibilities among the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, General Administration of Customs, and the State Post Bureau in this special campaign. It called on relevant departments to strengthen coordination, intensify the crackdown on the smuggling of strategic minerals, and establish a strict, unified enforcement front. Authorities were instructed to take concrete and effective measures to prevent the illegal outflow of strategic minerals.

When asked by foreign media on May 16 whether China plans to lift or adjust rare earth export controls, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian didn’t provide a direct answer.

[https://thechinaacademy.org/will-china-lift-its-rare-earth-export-controls/](https://thechinaacademy.org/will-china-lift-its-rare-earth-export-controls/)




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Why should China lift the export controls with US getting hostile to Hongkong banks and banning HuaweI chips?

I_AM_GODDAMN_BATMAN

I agree that China shouldn't be selling these to the US at all, especially if they are going to use it in weapons of mass destruction against China in any event. No..

Bchliu

People need to understand the US is a hostile belligerent power

AzizamDilbar

That's like selling rope to the US so it can use it to make a noose to hang you.

Square_Level4633

China has a strategic advantage which it should use to push back against the relentless rabid behavior of the US in China's homeland politics.

Ancient-Watch-1191

China should never lift it's export ban on rare earths as long as the US is surrounding it with military bases and selling weapons to Taiwan.

renaissanceman71

WebbyDewBoy

Keep the others dependent on the supply chain but don’t allow stockpiling. The flow shouldn’t be enough to build large stockpiles of smart weapons

supaloopar

No-Owl517

Hell nah, if we lift the export control then trump will keep doing it in the future. You can't negotiate with a tiger.

Leading-Zone-8814

Better not to lift the controls. Make it harder to bad actors to build up their military.

jirgalang

[deleted]

ExcuseCreative3148

https://apnews.com/article/china-response-us-tariffs-104-d40d497f6e07ee4163d88443cb75ab3f

Cheetos Man raises the tariffs again, so no. Critical minerals should not be exported to the US, at all.

Catfulu

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&gt; Two decades ago, factories in Indiana that turned rare earth metals into magnets moved production to China — just as demand for the magnets was starting to soar for everything from cars and semiconductors to fighter jets and robots.

&gt; The United States is now reckoning with the cost of losing that supply chain. The Chinese government abruptly halted exports of rare earth magnets to any country on April 4 as part of its trade war with the United States.

&gt; American officials had expected that China would relax its restrictions on the magnets as part of the trade truce the two countries reached in mid-May. But on Friday, President Trump suggested that China had continued to limit access.

&gt; Now, American and European companies are running out of the magnets.

nosotros_road_sodium

[On April 4, China’s Ministry of Commerce imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements (REEs) and magnets](https://www.csis.org/analysis/consequences-chinas-new-rare-earths-export-restrictions) used in the defence, energy, and automotive sectors in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff increases on Chinese products. The new restrictions apply to 7 of 17 REEs—samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium—and **requires companies to secure special export licenses to export the minerals and magnets.**

The new restrictions are not a ban; rather, they require **firms to apply for a license to export rare earths**. This development has implications: first, there will likely be a pause in exports as the Chinese government establishes this licensing system. Second, there is **also likely to be disruptions in supply to some U.S. firms** given that the announcement also placed 16 U.S. entities on its export control list, limiting them from receiving dual-use goods. All but one of the firms on the list are in the defence and aerospace industries.

Thatisme01

West's "rare" vs. "oversupply" logic:  Chinese produced "rare earth" is rare, but Chinese EV's made from "rare earth" is "oversupplied".  but if China sells the "rare earth" to the West, and the West makes EV's /etc., it won't be "oversupplied"??!

academic_partypooper

Maybe starting a trade war with the country that supplies you with most of your critical materials that cannot be supplied from another nation wasn’t the smartest or bestest idea. 😂🤦‍♂️

Glum-Breadfruit-6421

It seems that after decades of deindustrialization in the United States, Americans no longer understand what industry is. To this day, Americans still do not understand that the reason the rare earth issue is so difficult to resolve is not because rare earths are rare, but precisely because they are not rare.

SnooStories8432

""What China is doing is they are holding back products that are essential for the industrial supply chains of India, of Europe. And that is not what a reliable partner does," Bessent said"

  
The air is thick with irony.

NameTheJack

SeparateSpend1542

Why would China allow the US high tech weapon production to start back up???

trump started this mess!

PatBenatari

US:

“Hey folks, STOP exporting chips to Chaina”

“Chaina, why u dont export minerals to me? 😡😡”

Zealousideal-Ad7773

Trump started a trade war thinking he had all the cards and everyone would stand in line. China knows that they have a card or two and they are showing those cards.

a_little_hazel_nuts

I can’t imagine Xi seems Trump as an equal, or even as a threat, at all. Them going 1-on-1 seems like bad outcome for the US.

MeLlamoApe

West_Valuable_7146

LOL - the USA still lets that dementia bitch speak for them??

Fucking weak.

smp7401

Shit faced TACO has been negotiating with himself while Xi and the rest of the world have been watching. Trump is an American parasite

Overall_Curve6725

acid-jazz

Not sure why these export controls on minerals are so important to the United States, considering some recent talking points about how these minerals are not actually rare, that they can be obtained from other sources, and that this critical mineral trade is actually relatively small to the United States (in millions of $ rather than billions) that stockpiling and recycling is both feasible and can last a very long period of time.

This issue being such a stumbling block in negotiations suggests it matters more to the United States than previously expected. 

Also, are these minerals going to be tariffed if imports resume?

FunSet4335

We were told TACO and Xi already had spoken, if not made a deal. What happened? Did TACO lie?

JimShoeVillageIdiot

Xi will be ordering TACOs for the occasion

siouxbee1434

Dear USA, your banker called. They want their twenty bajiiion dollar…tomorrow.

Elective_Mentality

 Xi has a *team* of interpreters for Trump.

Global-Damage-2261

“Likely” and “soon”

Sounds as vague as you can possibly get

reelpotatopeeler

It could, in the sense that the market has often failed to understand that China banned antimony exports back in 2024 and the mineral is not included in their more recent rate earths ban. I could see a world where UAMY takes a hit because eases export restrictions on like Gallium

That said, I think the bet on this stock is that it’s in the near and long-term strategic interests of the US (and tbh our defense customers in Europe) to develop near and on shore supply and processing capabilities. Even if China allows a trickle of antimony to start flowing, I think this hypothesis still holds true and the upside on UAMY remains.

Pointsmonster

People might confuse antimony with rare earth. I believe that has happened in the past.

PollenBasket

China doesn’t have it to spare their mines are depleted not like they have tons of it and are sitting on it

Large-Replacement941

Antimony is not one of the rare earth minerals they’re talking about here. China is pretty much out of being able to find and mine new antimony at this point.

nashaway

Maybe temporarily and only because people do not understand that Antimony will not be disussed, there is no way that China will ever sell antimony, (a critical mineral, not a rare earth mineral)  to the US. People need to be educated on this

Ok_Bathroom_976

Even if China eases export restrictions, it would likely be because they want to harm growing US companies by driving prices down with excess supply. So we will likely subsidize anyway and try to keep prices up.

Vegetable_Bet_896

It might pull back, just because the masses are uneducated. While antimony is not a rare earth, it is a critical metal and China will not be exporting it anytime soon.

Altruistic-Rip1138

I agree with the comments here. Its not a rare earth's problem. I work in an industry affected by the shortage and even Chinese mfgs are suffering shortages and raising prices on products that contain antimony.  I believe UAMY was buying  Chinese antimony and processing it at their smelter here so it would help their revenue if the spouts opened up.   I could be wrong on that last point, but I think it's accurate

Grrismith

The US and China have reached an agreement to allow the flow of rare earth minerals, marking a potential easing of trade tensions. This is vital for industries globally reliant on these minerals.

US-China Trade Talks and Rare Earth Mineral Agreement

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