Key Points:
- Chinese companies face confusion over strict new rare earth export laws.
- Questions to the commerce ministry surged as enforcement tightened nationwide.
- The United States recently relaxed some bans on shipping AI chips.
- President Trump and Xi Jinping plan to discuss trade this March.
Exporters across China face deep confusion nearly a year after Beijing tightened its grip on rare earth minerals. Companies that make everyday items like pill boxes and billboards constantly ask the government a simple question. They want to know if a tiny magnet turns their basic product into a strictly controlled item.
These businesses have flooded the Chinese commerce ministry with compliance questions. Between 2019 and 2024, the government published only 43 queries. In 2025, that number jumped to 135. Early this year, the rate of complaints regarding shipping delays and heavy regulations doubled. Unfortunately, officials usually give vague answers that fail to clarify the licensing rules.
Instead of making the rules clearer, Beijing is hiring more enforcers. The government recently posted dozens of new civil service jobs dedicated entirely to export control. Analysts note that China dominates the processing of rare earths. Experts warn that China now uses this dominance as an economic weapon, copying the exact strategies Washington used against it in the past.
At the same time, the United States is shifting its own strategy. President Donald Trump recently relaxed some restrictions on shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China. His administration added only 131 Chinese companies to its restricted trade list in 2025. This marks a massive drop from the record 257 companies blacklisted the previous year.
Tech giants welcome this change. An Nvidia spokesperson argued that America must let its industries compete globally to protect national security and save jobs. Company leadership previously criticized strict bans as complete failures.
These shifting policies set the stage for a massive diplomatic showdown. Trump will travel to Beijing in late March to meet face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders will use this high-stakes summit to see if their fragile trade truce can survive in a world of weaponized supply chains.
