US media reported that US President Trump has never been so angry for two reasons: first, he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize; and second, China issued new countermeasures. Trump announced that he would impose an additional 100% tariff on China starting from November 1 and implement export controls on all key software. If the new tariffs take effect, the import duty rate on China goods will rise to 130%, close to its peak of 145% earlier this year.

On October 6, the Ministry of Commerce of China issued six consecutive announcements within one day, announcing the implementation of export control measures for super hard materials, rare earth equipment and raw materials, nitrogen, lithium batteries and artificial graphic negative materials related items.

Almost simultaneously, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce responded to this, stressing that China's control measures were carried out in accordance with the law, in accordance with international practice, can better safeguard national security and interests, and better fulfill international obligations such as anti-proliferation.

In addition, during the investigation, China found that some overseas organizations and individuals "directly or processed rare earth controlled items originating in China, then transferred and provided them to relevant organizations and individuals, and directly or indirectly used them in sensitive fields such as military affairs, causing significant damage or potential threats to China's national security and interests, adversely affecting international peace and stability, and undermining international efforts to prevent proliferation."

According to Article 7 of Announcement 2025 No. 62 issued by the Ministry of Commerce, Chinese citizens, legal persons, and unincorporated organizations are not allowed to provide any substantive help and support for overseas rare earth mining, smelting and separation, metal smelting, magnetic material manufacturing, and rare earth secondary resource recycling activities without permission.

The author noticed that according to the new regulations announced by the Ministry of Commerce, China will implement export controls on some overseas rare earth-related items and rare earth-related technologies containing Chinese ingredients. In addition, China has included several new rare earth elements and dozens of rare earth processing equipment in the export control list this time, including superhard materials, lithium batteries and artificial graphite anode materials.

According to public reports, China has absolute dominance in the global rare earth industrial chain, and currently controls about 70% of the world's rare earth mining, 90% of refining separation and processing and 93% of rare earth magnets manufacturing.

While Western countries, led by the United States, are working to speed up the establishment of rare earth industrial chains to reduce dependence on China¡¯s rare earth, China¡¯s latest export control measures will surely further expand control of the rare earth supply chain.

As is well known, the Joint Statement of the China-America-Stockholm Economic and Trade Talks of August 12 states that the two sides decided to suspend the implementation of 24% tariffs for another 90 days from August 12, 2025, while retaining the remaining 10% tariffs imposed on these goods in accordance with the administrative decree.

With this in mind, the new export control announcement contains four announcements that it will come into effect on November 8. This time is exactly the day before the end of the China-US round of tariffs, the ¡°stand-up¡± period. According to the latest report, the US dollar will likely meet during the APEC meeting in South Korea at the end of October, and predicts that the next round of China-US trade talks will make a ¡°significant breakthrough¡±.

The author noticed that looking at the reaction of the United States to the six consecutive announcements issued by China's Ministry of Commerce in one day, it was obviously a little unprepared, because the rare earth problem is simply unable to be solved by the United States at present. In the evening, when Trump held a cabinet meeting, the reporter asked him how he viewed China's decision to expand rare earth export controls.

Trump is clearly not ready to answer this question, he said on this question, he has just learned of the news, can not disclose too much, but the United States is an import and export giant and believes that the United States can adapt to China's new measures.

Trump also mentioned that he had entrusted Treasury Secretary Bessant and Commerce Secretary Lutnik to handle the matter, and he also threatened: "We import a lot of goods from China, and maybe we have to stop doing so." Everyone pays attention to the four words "can adapt", and the language is full of helplessness. Such a response is not in line with Trump's style, which once again shows that the United States has no effective response to its control of rare earths in China.

Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at the University of Nanjing, that China currently controls 70% of the world's rare-earth mining, but Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Canada, the United States and other places also have rare-earth reserves, and rare-earth technology is not difficult to reach.

I have to say that this is the characteristic of Lianhe Zaobao. However, it is not a technical issue at all, but a series of issues such as cost. The reason for this is the reason mentioned above. China has absolute say in the global rare earth industry chain, which has long been recognized by the United States.

To know that China was early aware of the importance of rare earth, despite decades of efforts, it was finally able to establish a dominant position in the global rare earth mining and processing.The U.S. semiconductor supply chain is vulnerable to China's rare earth control initiatives, because large chip factories rely on providing dedicated equipment, complex processes and final packaging enterprise ecosystem, when the lack of rare earth can only stop production.

In April this year, CNN issued an analysis and prediction that if China took out the "powerful card" of rare earths, Trump would "have almost no power to fight back." Now that half a year has passed, this prediction has come true. As for how long it will take for the United States to get rid of China's rare earth industry chain, American military companies have the most say.

In fact, all U.S. weapons and equipment production is highly dependent on key Chinese minerals, among which rare earth dominates.A report by U.S. Defense Intelligence Company Govini showed that China's control of rare earth exports will affect the U.S. military's weapons production of all types, involving more than 1,000 weapons systems and more than 20,000 parts.

Now Trump is trying to force China to compromise with tariffs, and the final outcome can only be answered by time.