China Backs Down on Rare Earth Minerals Threat After Trump Threatens 100% Tariffs . . . Trump - Xi Summit Back on . . .
by Catherine, Yang, The Epoch Times.com, October 14, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump signaled that he will meet with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping at the upcoming APEC summit in South Korea after Chinese authorities seemed to walk back an Oct. 9 announcement that China would tighten critical minerals export controls, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Oct. 13.
“That’s the signal the president has given,” Bessent said on Fox Business program “Mornings With Maria,” referencing Trump’s earlier statement on Truth Social that there was “no reason” to meet with Xi after Beijing announced the export control. The APEC summit is scheduled to run from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 in South Korea. Bessent said the lines of communication have since reopened and that the United States would firmly reject the new restrictions.On Oct. 9, Chinese authorities expanded export controls to cover a wide range of products made anywhere in the world that contain 12 critical minerals, requiring would-be buyers to submit applications detailing the minerals’ use and denying them to chipmakers.
The next day, Trump responded with threats of 100 percent tariffs and export restrictions on “critical software” starting on Nov. 1, calling Beijing’s move “hostile.”
The Chinese regime seemed to capitulate in response. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Oct. 12 said Beijing had “deferred” when the U.S. government called about the new restrictions. Chinese spokespersons stated on Oct. 13 that the restrictions were not outright bans and that they sought dialogue.
Bessent said on Oct. 13 that the CCP might have done it to distract from its dire economic situation or its purchase of Iranian and Russian oil, but that the move was a “miscalculation.”
Click Here to Watch/Listen to the Newest We the People Convention Weekly News & Opinion Podcast!“I can tell you, trying to get leverage in front of a meeting with Donald Trump is a bad idea,” Bessent said, adding that Trump had “turned the tables” with two social media posts.
He also echoed the president in saying the United States has many more cards it has not played, such as restrictions on software, financial services, sanctions, and others. “It was a miscalculation, but we are communicating now. I am confident that we can move forward,” the Treasury secretary said.
Trump believes that there may be dissent among the ranks of the CCP, Bessent said. “The president thinks that this may have been from a lower-level official,” he said. “The Chinese system is quite brittle, so this may not have come from Xi Jinping himself. “This may have come from a Chinese hardliner. They have hardliners on their side, too, who are always trying to undermine the relationship.”
Bessent said trade tensions had de-escalated and that U.S.–China talks are already scheduled for this week. “The 100 percent tariff does not have to happen,” he said. “There will be working-level talks this week, and I imagine that I will have some contact with my counterpart, and then the two leaders will meet.
“Despite this announcement, last week [was] good; lines of communication have reopened. We are going to stand firm and reject these licensing requirements, because this is for the whole world.
“A group of bureaucrats in China cannot tell us and our allies how to run our supply system.”
Bessent also echoed Trump’s rebuke of Beijing for announcing the export restrictions at the same time that a historic peace deal in the Middle East was underway.
“The Chinese are very big on symbolism, and I can tell you, it was highly inappropriate for them to announce these export controls on the day that peace deal was announced and overshadow that,” the Treasury secretary said.De-risking the Critical Minerals Supply Chain
China has a chokehold on the global critical minerals supply chain because it extracts a majority of the world’s supply and processes about 90 percent of it. Still, experts have told The Epoch Times that Beijing’s attempt to exert more leverage on this issue will only accelerate global efforts to diversify away from China.
Bessent said on Oct. 13 that the Pentagon’s investment in MP Materials-owned Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine—the United States’ only rare earths processing facility—marked the beginning of a fast-track effort to bring the supply chain back to the United States.
Bessent said China has proven itself to be an “unreliable supplier” not just of critical minerals, but also of other supplies, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that the Chinese regime has never been a market player in this sector.
Click Here to Donate to Support the Mission of the We the People Convention!“What’s happened over the past two decades is anytime [that] a refining or processing facility has been set up, either in the U.S. or in a free market country, the Chinese come in and undercut the price,” Bessent said.
Mike Sun, a U.S.-based businessman with decades of experience advising foreign investors and traders doing business in China, told The Epoch Times that Beijing currently exerts both direct and indirect control over rare earth pricing through production quotas, export licenses, and increased environmental regulations.
Sun said the U.S. tariffs and export controls were short-term measures to counter Beijing, while long-term measures such as those that the Trump administration has previewed to support a domestic supply chain were “critical.”
Bessent said U.S. government investments during this fast-track period will help shield the domestic industry from the CCP’s influence.
“We are going to guarantee prices for the processing, for the refining, because you can’t market when there is a non-free market state actor destroying capacity,” he said.
Terri Wu contributed to this report.
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