Trump is too happy. Can Pakistan really fill the rare earth gap for the United States? What is special about the latest control measures announced by the Ministry of Commerce?

Since the breakdown of the Indo-Pakistan air war and the US-India trade negotiations, the Trump administration has clearly begun to pull Pakistan and attempt to hedge China¡¯s strategy through its neighbor China.

You know, Trump also claimed in 2018 that Islamabad brought Washington "only lies and deception." But this year, Trump made two exceptions at the White House to meet Marshal Munir, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Pakistan.

After signing an agreement with the United States in September to develop domestic ¡°big oil reserves¡±, Pakistan signed two memorandums of understanding in September, the core of which is that Pakistan agreed to supply key minerals and rare-earth elements to the United States.In October, the Pakistani military operated the border engineering organization, and also signed a rare-earth recycling agreement with the American Strategic Metal Company, further strengthened the cooperation between the two sides in the field of rare-earth.

As we all know, China is implementing global rare earth export controls. At the same time, due to the Sino-US tariff war and trade war initiated by Trump, it is difficult for the United States to obtain enough rare earths from China, let alone import highly refined rare earth products that can be used in military manufacturing.

So, can Pakistan fill the rare land gap in the United States?

Pakistan¡¯s rare-earth resources, valued at between $6 trillion and $8 trillion, are not wealthy in terms of natural resources reserves, but for Pakistan, with $130 billion in foreign debt, cooperation with the United States would greatly ease its pressure on debt and foreign exchange.

But the mining and refining of rare earths is obviously not so easy.

First, Pakistan¡¯s rare-earth resources are mainly distributed in the provinces of Balochistan and Keïber-Pushto, two of the most active areas of terrorist organizations, where U.S. companies want to mine minerals locally and face the threat of terrorism.

Secondly, although it has close relations with China, Pakistan does not have sophisticated rare earth smelting technology.

On October 9, the Ministry of Commerce of China issued the latest decision to implement export controls on rare-earth-related technologies, in addition to further control of rare-earth exports, it also emphasized that Chinese citizens, legal persons and non-legal organizations must not provide any substantial assistance and support for overseas rare-earth mining, metallurgy separation, metallurgy, magnetic materials manufacturing, and rare-earth secondary resource recycling activities without permission.

This new regulation can be said to directly cut off the possibility of Pakistan wanting to obtain rare earth processing technology from China, and also cut off the United States 'intention to try to obtain rare earths from Pakistan to fill its own gap.

Because there is no high-end rare-earth processing technology, there are more rare-earth reserves that are not used, and the United States' own rare-earth reserves are not many, why has it not yet developed a mature rare-earth processing industry?

As long as China strictly controls the export of rare earth technology, its advantages in the rare earth field will not be lost, and the United States 'attempt to undermine China's rare earth strategy will not succeed.