Still Asleep at the Wheel: How Communist China Turned Rare Earths Into a Weapon

The CCP is using economic dependency, not markets, to shape the multipolar era.

Workers transport soil containing rare-earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China, on Oct. 31, 2010. STR/Reuters

Commentary

In early October 2025, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced that it would withhold its rare-earth minerals from the world via newly placed export controls. The changes will make the process more laborious, and the CCP will have more of a say over who gets what. The United States, for its part, seemed perplexed by China’s actions. U.S. President Donald Trump reacted with fury and shock at China’s move, writing that “it is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action.” Eventually, the two sides came to a deal in which China would put the changes on pause—but only for a year.