China’s rare earth controls spark global concern
Trump, in his post, accused Beijing of “becoming very hostile” and “sending letters to countries throughout the world” to impose sweeping export controls.
“Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would ‘clog’ the markets, and make life difficult for virtually every country in the world, especially for China,” Trump said.
He described China’s move as “a rather sinister and hostile” attempt to leverage its dominant position in rare earths, adding, “There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the world ‘captive,’ but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time.”
The president said he had not spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping and threatened to cancel their planned meeting at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.
“This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the leaders of the free world. I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” Trump said.