China's tight grip on rare earths could effectively shut out any nation from the modern economy, warns a former White House advisor. Beijing's new export controls on rare earths go beyond just limiting access to a crucial technology input, according to Dean Ball, who served as a senior advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy earlier this year. On Thursday, China's commerce ministry announced that starting December 1, foreign companies will need a license to export products containing more than 0.1% of rare earths from China or produced using Chinese technology. This move has led President Donald Trump to announce a 100% tariff on China and restrictions on U.S. software exports. While this appears as another round of tit-for-tat in the U.S.-China trade war, the stakes are much higher. Ball emphasizes, 'China has crafted a policy that gives it the power to forbid any country on Earth from participating in the modern economy.' This is because China has diligently built up industrial capacity in rare earths, a field no other country has the fortitude to match. They've been willing to bear the financial and environmental costs to achieve this. Now, the rest of the world must follow suit.
