Highlights

• German Foreign Minister Wadephul's China visit focused on securing rare earth export licenses.
• The visit revealed Germany's deepening dependence on Chinese-processed critical materials despite years of diversification rhetoric.
• China's export control strategy targets intermediate products like oxides, metals, and alloys rather than raw ore.
• 'General licenses' from China are offered conditionally based on political confidence.
• Germany negotiates from a position of weakness, possessing rare earth deposits but resisting domestic mining due to environmental concerns.
• China controls the entire midstream processing infrastructure that Europe once outsourced.

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German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul’s inaugural trip to China was more than the usual diplomatic theatre. Behind the polite statements, historical lectures, and warnings over Taiwan lay the real subtext: As Rare Earth Exchanges has chronicled Germany needs rare earths, and China knows it.

Berlin did not come to Beijing for symbolism. It came for supply chains.

Diplomacy in a Hard Hat: The Subtle Ask Behind the Smiles

DW’s reporting today is generally accurate: Germany’s dependence on China for rare earths has deepened despite years of political rhetoric about diversification. From motors and EV drivetrains to fiber-optic networks and advanced chips, the German economy’s backbone runs through NdPr, Dy, Tb — materials overwhelmingly processed in China.

Dang Yuan’s DW piece notes that China recently restricted rare earth exports, not by cutting volumes outright but by imposing controls on products containing any of the 17 REEs. That aligns with what we have seen across the sector: Beijing weaponizes intermediate control points, especially oxides, metals, and alloys, rather than the raw ore itself. Wadephul’s stated win — that Beijing is willing to issue “general export licenses” for German and European firms — is real, but investors should treat it as a conditional gesture. As BDI’s Friedolin Strack (opens in a new tab) emphasized, licenses flow only when political confidence is high. Beijing giveth, Beijing taketh away.

The Subheadline Beijing Didn’t Write: Power Flows Downstream

Germany’s problem is not geology but politics and cost. Germany has rare-earth deposits, but resists mining due to environmental and energy burdens. This is correct based on our knowledge — and illustrative of Europe’s broader paralysis.

So DW, the German media, remains generally factual; however, it gently avoids naming the core structural risk:

China has leverage because Europe has offshored its entire midstream.

Berlin is now asking for the very thing it once outsourced.

Unanswered Questions Investors Should Be Asking

• Will China’s “general licenses” survive any future EU tariffs or industrial-policy friction?
• Can Germany truly diversify rare earth supply without accepting mining impacts at home?
• What is Europe’s replacement strategy if China weaponizes alloys and metals rather than oxides? (to date the U.S. under President Donald Trump has moved much faster to diversify---although America too has a long way to go to achieve independence from China).
• Does this signal a return to strategic dependency rather than diversification?

DW reports the news cleanly, but the structural tension remains unspoken: Germany is negotiating from weakness. China is negotiating from surplus. And the German media obviously is not such a place for too much candor.

Source: Deutsche Welle (DW), Dec. 10, 2025 — reporting by Dang Yuan

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