According to Straits Network, on October 16, local time, the United States took the initiative to return a precious cultural relic from the Warring States Period to China. It was a tiger-shaped plaque. From the picture, it was similar to the ancient "tiger talisman" in China.

Xie Feng, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, received it on behalf of China. Xie Feng expressed the hope that more lost cultural relics would be returned to their countries of origin.

You know, this point in time is during China's control of rare earths. From Trump's initial bluff, to calling for China's negotiations, calling on China to remain "rational", and now to the return of Chinese cultural relics, it is easy for people to see that this is a show of kindness to China.

But if you want China to "let go", it seems a bit stingy to return such a tiger-shaped decoration.

Threatening to screaming.

On October 9, China's Ministry of Commerce issued a policy to strengthen rare-earth export controls, which instantly aroused global attention, the first to hit the United States.

On October 12th, a White House spokesman bluntly stated at a regular press conference that China's rare earth control was "obviously a unilateral action against the United States" and threatened to take "reciprocal countermeasures". However, this bluff did not last long. As the anxiety of the industry continued to spread, the United States' attitude began to turn to the coexistence of toughness and demands.

On October 15, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Bescent and Trade Representative Greer attended a press conference together. While continuing to exert pressure, they claimed that "if China insists on being an unreliable partner, the world will be forced to decouple from it" and distorted China's measures as "confrontation with the whole world"; On the other hand, it quietly let go and called on China to "return to the negotiating table and resolve differences in a rational way".

What is ridiculous is that the accusation of the United States is completely untenable. On October 16, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian calmly responded at a regular press conference: "The export control measures introduced by China are in line with international common practice and aim to better maintain world peace and regional stability, and are not targeted at specific countries."

This response pointed out the legitimacy of the policy and debunked the disguise of "victims" in the United States.

In fact, the core reason for the fierce reaction of the United States is that its deep dependence on China's rare earths has long reached a point where it is difficult to replace.

China not only controls 70% of the world's rare-earth production, but also monopoly over 85% of rare-earth metallurgy production capacity, especially in the high-end weapons manufacturing indispensable medium-weight rare-earth field, China's supply ratio reaches almost 100%.

U.S. customs data can better reflect its dependency: in 2024, 68% of U.S. imports of rare-earth products came from China, even after years of "de-Chinese" efforts, this proportion remained at more than 60% in 2025. while China's General Administration of Customs data showed that from July to September 2025, China's rare-earth exports fell for three consecutive months, of which exports were only 4,000.3 tons in September, down 30.9% from August, reaching the lowest level since February this year.

This means that the U.S. is facing the risk of accelerating consumption of the originally tense rare-earth inventory, and the direct impact of the inventory is the U.S. proud military industry.

Returning the ¡°insufficient¡± value.

After continuous shouting failed, the Trump administration finally took practical actions to return the cultural relics. On October 16th, the United States took the initiative to return the tiger-shaped plaque of the Warring States Period to China. When receiving it, Ambassador Xie Feng made it clear: "It is a respect for human civilization and the proper meaning of cultural exchanges between China and the United States to expect more lost cultural relics to return to their countries of origin as soon as possible."

In fact, the return of this tiger-shaped brand ornament is more like the Trump administration's helpless move under the pressure of rare earth control. Since China strengthened rare earth control, the Trump administration's attitude has experienced a triple jump of "tough threats-calls for negotiations-active goodwill". This change is enough to show that China's control measures have indeed hurt the United States.

According to a recent report from Northrop Grumman, its B-21 hidden bomber project has lost $4.7 billion due to rising raw material prices, and the rise in rare-earth prices is an important incentive.As the supply gap in rare-earth continues to expand, the future U.S. F-47 six-generation aircraft and a series of military-industrial projects such as the Star Wars class ships will face the risk of delayed deliveries and over-expenses.

However, according to incomplete statistics, the total number of Chinese cultural relics lost worldwide exceeds 10 million, of which more than 2 million are collected in the United States alone. There are more than 200,000 Chinese cultural relics on public display in major museums in the United States. Covering bronze artifacts, porcelain, book painting, jewelry and other various categories, from the New Stone Age colored potatoes to the Qingdao court treasures, time span up to thousands of years.

What's more noteworthy is that there was a cooperation mechanism between China and the United States for the return of cultural relics. Since the two countries signed an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding to prevent Chinese cultural relics from illegally entering the United States in 2009, 20 batches of 594 pieces/sets of cultural relics have been returned successively. In March 2025 alone, the United States returned 41 pieces from the Neolithic Age to the Qing Dynasty at one time.

In contrast, the one-piece tiger-shaped jewelry returned under the pressure of rare-earth control, whether in quantity or value, is far less than the previous results of cooperation, and it is difficult to see as a true expression of goodwill.

Thought of Trump.

Trump's choice to return cultural relics during the period of rare earth control has long been obvious, that is, it wants to exchange small concessions in the cultural field for China's "leniency" in rare earth control, while avoiding substantive compromises in the economic and trade fields.

But this ¡°weightless¡± game strategy clearly underestimates China¡¯s determination to safeguard its national interests, and also exposes its current uncomfortable situation.

On October 9, the Ministry of Commerce clearly pointed out in the policy interpretation that the direct reason for the strengthening of control is that "some overseas organizations and individuals illegally transferred China's rare land to the military-industrial field, seriously damaging China's national interests and international security."

This means that the core of the policy is to prevent rare-earth military applications that endanger China¡¯s security, rather than trade countermeasures against the United States.

The Trump administration has long insisted on taking a tough stance on China's economic and trade issues, not willing to abolish the high tariffs on Chinese goods, and not willing to ease sanctions on Chinese technology enterprises.

First, in the agricultural field, the US soybeans, corn and other agricultural products to China export dependence is very high, if it is not possible to reach a consensus in the near term, this year's soybeans orders will completely miss the window period, can only wait until next year,

Secondly, in the industrial field, in addition to the military industry suffering from the shortage of rare earths, pillar industries such as new energy and electronics are also facing the risks of rising costs and supply chain breaks; in the financial field, if Sino-US trade frictions escalate further, it may trigger a chain reaction in the U.S. stock and bond market, which is beyond the reach of the Trump administration.

Looking at the approaching meeting between the US and China at the end of this month, the Trump administration has fallen into a difficult situation, but the author believes that Trump's calculation is difficult to succeed.

The differences between China and the United States are rooted in U.S. unilateralism and hegemonic thinking, and if the Trump administration really wants to solve the problem, it must come out with real sincerity: stop politicizing economic and trade issues, abolish unreasonable tariffs on China, and respect China's national security concerns.

Heritage can go home, but trust needs to be rebuilt.