Highlights

• China launches full-chain export control initiative for strategic minerals.
• Initiative involves coordination across multiple provinces and government departments.
• New policy aims to crack down on illegal exports and smuggling.
• Enhanced supervision and cross-departmental enforcement are key components of the policy.
• Geopolitical tensions and trade dynamics influence China's strategic approach.
• Focus is on managing critical mineral supply chains.

In a powerful show of state coordination, China has moved to consolidate control over its strategic mineral exports further. As reported by Asian Metal on May 13, a high-level meeting convened by the national export control work coordination office—alongside the Ministry of Commerce and provincial authorities from rare earth-rich regions like Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangxi—unveiled a full-chain export control initiative that could reshape the global rare earth supply landscape.

This Rare Earth Exchanges (REEx) piece occurs after the U.S. and Chinese teams met to discuss tariffs and trade.  A 90-day pause with lower tariffs across the board now at least facilitates trade.

The policy directive, which emphasizes a crackdown on illegal exports and smuggling, extends China’s regulatory reach across every stage of the mineral supply chain—from mining and smelting to transportation, manufacturing, and export. Local governments have been instructed to implement "routine supervision," conduct compliance reviews, and enhance early-warning systems. Authorities have also mandated cross-departmental coordination and vertically integrated command chains to ensure compliance and guard national security and economic development interests.

But the sweeping measures raise critical questions. What thresholds define "unauthorized outflows," and will the clampdown disproportionately target Western-affiliated processors or traders? The article does not mention how these measures align—or conflict—with recent export licenses granted to firms supplying Western automakers such as Volkswagen. Furthermore, whether China’s new full-chain oversight also includes data-sharing requirements for foreign joint ventures or restrictions on price disclosures and trading terms remains unclear.

This move, cloaked in the language of national security, comes just weeks after China imposed sweeping rare earth export restrictions amid its trade standoff with the United States, which has been somewhat relieved.  

With mounting signs of a ramp-up in central-local enforcement and increasing geopolitical weaponization of rare earths, the global industry must now ask: Is this a shift toward regulatory predictability or another veiled step in China’s rare earth realignment strategy?

Source: Asian Metal News (opens in a new tab), May 13, 2025.