During a press conference on Oct. 16, a Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman defended China’s recent moves, including the yet-to-be-implemented export restrictions on rare-earth technologies. The spokesman responded to the Oct. 15 comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to the effect that China was unprovoked, saying that their summary “seriously distorts and deliberately exaggerates” China’s measures.
Instead, the spokesman said that, in the three weeks after the two sides had held constructive talks in Madrid, the U.S. rolled out 20 measures to suppress China. This included the U.S. Commerce Department unveiling an “affiliates rule” that expanded the universe of Chinese companies on a U.S. entities list to encompass thousands of enterprises that would be blacklisted. “These measures have seriously harmed China’s interests and undermined the atmosphere of the bilateral trade discussions,” the spokesman said. He called on the U.S. to ]"immediately rectify its wrong practices."](https://x.com/MOFCOM_China/status/1978822341573419384) The Treasury Department had no immediate response.
The spokesman maintained that controls on foreign-made rare earth products would be limited to rare earth magnets, and related components, that are already on its “restricted exports” list. Further, all compliance applications for export from China for non-military use would still be approved. China said it would shorten review timelines for licenses to allow the sale of these minerals, and consider exemptions.
Whether such clarifications will de-escalate the situation is unknown, but the two sides have already had working-level discussions this week, and analysts expect continued efforts over the next two weeks to bear fruit with a meeting during the ASEAN summit between China’s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump.
