New York Times Chinese Edition wrote today (June 11): "The US and China have accurately seized each other's weaknesses. After the trade war was suspended, US officials believed that China would resume supplying rare earth to US companies. However, China's rare earth exports are still very small and strictly controlled."
In response, US officials attempted to pressure China by restricting exports to China, including products such as software used in semiconductor manufacturing, gases like ethane and butane, as well as nuclear energy and aviation components.
[Smart] Comment: The restriction on rare earth is aimed at hitting the US' "achilles heel", because the US is highly dependent on China for the supply and processing of rare earth resources. The US defense industry and high-tech industries have great demand for rare earth. For example, producing one F-35 fighter jet requires about 920 pounds (approximately 417 kilograms) of rare earth, while the processing capacity of rare earth in the US itself is insufficient. The raw materials mined from the only rare earth mine in the US, Mountain Pass in California, need to be sent to China for processing. After China implemented export controls on rare earth, the production lines of the US defense industry may collapse within six months. Moreover, it will take at least 10 years for the US to rebuild a complete rare earth industrial chain, so it is difficult to摆脱 dependence on China's rare earth in the short term. This makes the restriction on rare earth a key means to constrain the US.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1834617237152772/
Disclaimer: The article only represents the views of the author.