America: Beijing made a mistake by imposing controls on exports of rare earths

Besant said in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper published on Saturday. "China has warned everyone of the danger. I made a real mistake"adding that "There is a difference between putting a gun on the table and shooting it in the air"

Exports of rare metals

Beginning in October, Beijing announced the imposition of controls on the export of some technologies related to rare metals, which are essential metals for the digital technology, automobile, energy and defense industries.

But after talks that took place this week in South Korea between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump, Beijing agreed to suspend some of these restrictions for a year.

Global supply chains

These measures constituted one of The most prominent points of disagreement between the two economic powers in their recent negotiations, as well as being a source of major disruption in global supply chains.

China maintains near-monopoly control over the processing of rare earths, and is accused of using this dominance to put pressure on its trading partners.

However, Besant saw that Beijing has exhausted one of its cards, stressing that Washington "It has measures to compensate for this (…) and I believe that the Chinese leadership was concerned about the world’s reaction to these restrictions".