The "legacy" of the Sino-US tariff storm has not been resolved yet. As the United States is currently anxious to negotiate with China, another uninvited guest came to ask China for rare earths. According to reports, due to high tariff barriers, India has also established a series of automobile production centers in China, which are basically "exclusively for use" in India's own market. The heavy rare earths they imported involved magnets in the automotive field were purchased from China, but China interrupted exports after implementing rare earth controls in April. After the Sino-US negotiations in May, China lifted some controls, but US companies complained that "the export speed was too slow" and that global supply was not enough.
Source said that India complained as early as May that their imports were affected and cannot be resolved so far. Subsequently, four major automakers including India's Tata and Maruti Suzuki jointly stated again that if China's rare earth imports are subject to long-term restrictions, then "the automobile production lines across India may be completely shut down in the first week of June." As a result, the Indian media and the so-called "experts" put hard pressure on China, saying that as a supplier of rare earths for private enterprises, China, no matter what the reason is, "tightening rare earth exports will inadvertently weaken its dominance in global rare earth competition."
On the 6th, Reuters also began to promote new arguments, saying that China will gradually "weaponize" rare earths because China discovered that rare earths can become "a better and more targeted trade war weapon" in its control. Moreover, this argument also indicates that China's behavior is following the long-term long-arm control measures of the United States; and China has also established an "export list" tracking system to allow customers to submit additional information, including transaction volume and customer names. While this method can track the direction of each rare earth flow, it is also likely to become a long-term means to comprehensively strengthen China's regulatory capabilities.
Analysts said that the so-called "reports" from India to the UK are full of bias. India threatened China with the statement that its own companies had "stop production" as a threat, and "not supply would affect its reputation." But from the specific perspective, India and other countries do not produce, innovate, or reserve rare earths, and once there is a problem, they will only "ask for" China. This is completely abnormal. The British argument even wants to compare China to the early stages of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Russia controlled natural gas and oil exports to European countries. British media immediately shouted the slogan of "weaponization", and now they have to use the same trick again.
It is also worth mentioning that insiders said that many countries around the world began to attack China's counter-policies at the same time, indicating that the Trump administration is planning new actions to "jointly put pressure" on China, and that the rare earth shortage of some companies may not be so urgent at all. Last month, India even proposed the strategic goal of "get rid of rare earth dependence" with China and established its own rare earth supply chain plan, but all actions are currently at the "planning" step. Indian media believes that the country's dominance of global rare earths and key minerals is not due to accident, but the result of decades of systematic layout through in-depth investment, supply chain integration and strategic acquisitions. On this basis, even the United States is difficult to reach, let alone India's supply chain poses any threat to China's supply chain and how they can "get rid of dependence".
