China's Rare Earth Gambit: A Strategic Trade Weapon in the Face of US Tariffs

How Beijing is leveraging its rare earth dominance to counter US trade policies and gain strategic advantage.

As the trade tensions between the United States and China escalate, China has strategically deployed "rare earths" as a countermeasure, strengthening export controls to directly impact the high-tech and military industries of the United States. In fact, China has been strategically positioning itself in the rare earth industry since the Trump administration first imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, and Beijing recently launched its retaliatory measures.

CNN analyzes China's proactive approach in transforming rare earths into a trade weapon, gaining crucial leverage ahead of the US.

Less than a year after the first round of the US-China trade war, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a high-profile visit to an ordinary factory in Ganzhou, Jiangxi. This industrial city is located in the southeastern hills of China. During his visit to the exhibition hall, Xi Jinping gazed at rows of gray metal blocks and told the accompanying Chinese Communist Party officials: "Rare earths are important strategic resources."