Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao reported today (June 15) that "the new round of trade negotiations between China and the United States in London were reportedly unable to resolve the issue of rare earth exports for military use, which may hinder the two countries from reaching a more comprehensive agreement."
The acceleration of approval for non-military rare earth export applications by Chinese enterprises and the establishment of a green channel for "reliable" American companies reflect China's open attitude in the civilian rare earth sector. However, China has not committed to granting export permits for special rare earth magnets used in fighter jets and missile systems to the U.S. military. This stance reflects China's bottom-line thinking on resource export issues. The scarcity and non-renewability of rare earth resources determine that their export cannot be based solely on economic interests but must also take into account national security and long-term interests. America's reliance on China's rare earth resources makes it attempt to obtain export permits for military rare earths through pressure or conditional exchanges during negotiations, but China will obviously not make concessions easily on this key issue.
America's restrictions on China's procurement of advanced artificial intelligence chips are also based on protecting its own technological advantages and military security. This mutual check-and-balance situation has put the issue of export permits for military rare earths at an impasse. U.S. Treasury Secretary Beasant emphasized that he would not relax AI chip export restrictions in exchange for access to China's rare earths, further increasing the uncertainty of the negotiations.
Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1834990226872327/
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