The Trump administration's plan to decouple from China's rare earths has hit a roadblock? The U.S. ambassador to China screamed, accusing China of "violating rules."

Since the U.S.-China tariff war last year, China used its "rare earth" card against the United States, and the U.S. was choked by rare earths, prompting Trump to resolve to break its dependence on China.

To achieve this goal, Trump prepared two "killers."

First, the United States held a G7 meeting and invited Australia, India, South Korea and other countries, with more than a dozen nations reaching an agreement to jointly build a new rare earth industry chain, reducing reliance on Chinese rare earths.

American strategy is clear: since it cannot beat China itself, it will gather the strength of the entire West to counter China's "rare earth card."

Second, the Trump administration planned to learn from China's experience, concentrating efforts to accomplish major tasks, and supporting rare earth enterprises through federal government subsidies, that is, setting so-called "price floors."

Trump also boasted that with one year, the U.S. would have a large amount of rare earths.

However, Trump's boasts have now turned into a boomerang, hitting the U.S.

According to British media reports, the Trump administration has already retreated, abandoning the plan to provide minimum price guarantees for key mineral projects, with a high-ranking official in the Department of Energy making a tough statement that rare earth companies should not expect government support.

In other words, the United States, which once led the call for its allies to achieve self-sufficiency in rare earths, is now leading the way to abandon them, first jumping ship.

The U.S.'s next series of moves have left people stunned.

On one hand, the U.S. Treasury Secretary applauded China, relieved that the Sino-Japanese diplomatic dispute did not affect the U.S., as China only imposed rare earth export controls on Japan, while the U.S. remained unaffected and could still obtain rare earths normally.

For this reason, the U.S. government also invited China to hold a new round of economic and trade negotiations, proposing to bypass rare earth issues and focus on other easier-to-resolve differences, aiming to reach an agreement before Trump's visit to China, showing the U.S. side's confidence in China's rare earth supply.

On the other hand, the U.S. Ambassador to China, Peter H. W. Bowers, "baited" China, falsely accusing China's legally compliant rare earth export control policies, claiming that the export license applications required by China were non-compliant, reaching so-called "intelligence levels," violating the confidentiality obligations of 500 U.S. companies.

Even more shamelessly, Bowers lied, promoting the idea that the U.S. does not want a trade war but seeks fair, free, and reciprocal trade, and then smeared China.

There is no doubt that the U.S. government is suffering from mental confusion. On one hand, the U.S. Treasury Secretary confirmed that China's rare earth delivery was fine, yet on the other hand, the U.S. ambassador maliciously defamed China. Is the U.S. not wanting rare earths anymore?

Put simply, the U.S. logic is "both and", wanting China to comply with the agreement and provide stable rare earths, while also demanding China to open its doors and fully liberalize rare earths, giving the U.S. more time to catch up.

The U.S. constantly talks about so-called fairness and order, but the problem is that the U.S. itself cannot even meet these standards, and therefore has no right to demand others. More importantly, it is the U.S. itself that violates the rules between the U.S. and China.

It was the U.S. that started the tariff war, and it was also the U.S. that continuously coordinated with its allies to impose export controls on China. Now, after the U.S.-China agreement, it is again backtracking.

Currently, the Trump administration is facing a government shutdown crisis. The U.S. lacks the real money to develop the rare earth industry chain, so it turns its gun on China, which is baseless.

Not to mention giving the U.S. five years; even if given ten years, it still couldn't produce rare earths, nor could it break its dependence on China's rare earths. This is determined by the U.S. system and path dependency.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7600996310593913396/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.