After the Financial Times on Feb. 16 fanned the flames of a new front in their desired US-vs.-China confrontation, warning that the Chinese were about to “target rare earth export curbs to hobble US defense industry,” the editor in chief of Global Times, Hu Xijin, responded by saying this was not likely to happen, at least not anytime soon. In an editorial headlined “Whether China plays ‘rare-earth card’, there will be no winner in China-US decoupling,” Hu Xijin explained some of the specifics:
“China does not have absolute monopoly on rare-earth exports. The possible impact of limiting the export of rare earths is uncertain, and may not be as strong as some people think… The Financial Times’ report has hyped the confrontational atmosphere between China and the US, which is welcomed by some Western media outlets. I believe that China and the US have not yet come to a full-scale confrontation which requires China to launch a `rare-earth war’ against the US regardless of its efficiency.”
