Analysts Anticipate Escalating Tensions as Beijing Imposes Rare Earth Controls, Washington Retaliates

‘It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have,’ U.S. President Trump wrote on Truth Social.

President Donald Trump returns to the White House from a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, on Oct. 10, 2025. Anna Rose Layden /Getty Images

News Analysis

President Donald Trump announced the imposition of an additional 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods and export controls on critical software, effective Nov. 1, in direct response to what he called Beijing’s “hostile” escalation by weaponizing rare earth exports.