China has prohibited the export of technologies used for mining, separating, refining, and making magnets from rare earth minerals to all foreign nations. The 2023 export ban specifically targeted Japan, Australia, and Vietnam.
Beijing introduced strict end-user certificates for raw gallium, germanium, and graphite. In 2024, China utilised Dual-Use Export Control Regulations to issue warnings to technology suppliers in Japan and South Korea.
The Chinese government warned that re-exporting components containing antimony, germanium, or gallium of Chinese origin to US defence contractors would trigger retaliatory blacklisting. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction was implemented by China in late 2025.
Beijing asserted that companies in third countries, including Germany, Japan, and South Korea, must obtain direct export licences if they export components to the US containing 0.1% or more of heavy rare earths like terbium or dysprosium. US manufacturers relocated production to Malaysia, Vietnam, and Mexico during late 2023.
The US Department of Defence collaborated with Australia between 2019 and 2023 to process heavy rare earths in Texas and domestically. Washington restricted tax credits for electric vehicles that use lithium, cobalt, graphite, or battery minerals sourced from China.
Since 2022, the US has pressured Indonesia to limit Chinese ownership shares in nickel refineries and to enforce transparency rules and forced labour bans on China. The US also bid against Chinese state-owned enterprises for copper and cobalt concessions in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Bilateral critical mineral agreements were signed by the US with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in 2024. Chinese firms dismantled multi-billion-dollar production lines in Indonesia and shipped the machinery back to China.
China maintains a near-monopoly on specialised chemical separation intellectual property and metallurgical refining technologies for heavy rare earths. Minerals with a potential value of $6 trillion could shift the balance for China.
