Overview

• China’s commerce ministry imposed immediate licensing on technologies for rare-earth mining, smelting, separation, recycling and magnet production, covering services such as assembly, maintenance and upgrades of production lines.
• Foreign firms must seek approval to export items that contain Chinese-sourced rare earths or were made using Chinese extraction, refining, magnet-making or recycling technologies, with rules on material exports taking effect on December 1.
• License applications tied to defense end users will be rejected in principle, while proposed uses in sub‑14 nm semiconductors, advanced memory, semiconductor equipment or AI with potential military applications will undergo case-by-case review.
• Chinese nationals and companies are barred from assisting rare-earth mining, processing or magnet manufacturing overseas without government approval, and officials have not detailed how the extraterritorial rules will be enforced.
• The move lands before a possible Trump–Xi meeting at APEC and underscores China’s leverage from supplying about 70% of global mining and roughly 90% of processing for materials critical to autos, clean energy, electronics and defense.