Overview

• China’s commerce ministry now requires licenses for technologies tied to rare‑earth mining, smelting, processing, recycling and magnet manufacturing, with rules on tech and labor in force immediately.
• Foreign firms must seek approval to export products that contain Chinese‑origin rare earths or were made using Chinese rare‑earth technologies, with reports citing a 0.1% content threshold and a December 1 start for these provisions.
• Applications linked to foreign militaries or entities on export‑control or watch lists will be rejected in principle, while requests involving sub‑14 nm chips, advanced memory and certain AI uses will face case‑by‑case reviews.
• Chinese nationals and companies are barred from assisting rare‑earth extraction, processing or magnet production overseas without government approval, extending China’s regulatory reach beyond its borders.
• The move comes ahead of a possible Xi–Trump meeting at the APEC summit, prompting concern from the European Commission and renewed industry scrutiny of supply‑chain risks given China’s dominance in mining and processing.