The Chinese government announced on Tuesday (November 7th) that it will further tighten its controls on rare earth exports, requiring exporters to report the types of rare earth exports and the destinations of exports.
The Nikkei Asia reported that since the US government further tightened its control over China's cutting-edge semiconductor chip exports, there has been a strong demand for reciprocal countermeasures in China, and it is in this context that the Chinese government has further tightened its control over rare earth exports.
The new export control restrictions will be implemented from October 31, 2023 until October 31, 2025.

The Ministry of Commerce of China announced on Tuesday that it has revised the "Statistical Investigation System for Import Reports of Bulk Agricultural Products" formulated in 2021 and renamed it the "Statistical Investigation System for Import and Export Reports of Bulk Products". It not only includes crude oil, iron ore, copper concentrate, and potassium fertilizer that are subject to import license management in the "Catalogue of Energy and Resource Products Subject to Import Reporting", Moreover, rare earths subject to export license management will be included in the "Catalogue of Energy and Resource Products Subject to Export Reporting". According to the requirements of the Ministry of Commerce, exporters must report the category and destination of rare earth exports.
Foreign trade operators importing and exporting the aforementioned products shall fulfill their obligation to report relevant import and export information, "the announcement of the Ministry of Commerce of China requires.
Rare earths are key materials for manufacturing electric vehicles and various weapons, including missiles, and China produces 70% of the world's rare earths. In fact, the United States also has some mines for key minerals, and the mining output has gradually risen to the second place in the world. However, the United States lacks refining technology for rare earths, so raw materials are often transported to China for processing before being exported to the United States.
In 2010, a fierce dispute over the sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands (also known as the Diaoyu Islands in China) between China and Japan sparked a rapid deterioration of relations. China subsequently significantly reduced its rare earth exports to Japan. Japan, the United States, and the European Union sued China for restrictions on rare earth exports at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2012 and won the lawsuit two years later. Beijing immediately lifted export quotas and other restrictions on rare earth exports.
In recent years, due to the tightening of export restrictions on China's advanced semiconductor and chip manufacturing technology and equipment by the United States and its allies, Beijing began to consider banning the export of high-performance magnet manufacturing technology and products using rare earths at the end of last year. With the intensification of friction between the United States and China, the Chinese government began restricting the export of key semiconductor materials gallium and germanium in August this year.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang emphasized last Friday when presiding over the executive meeting of the State Council that rare earths are strategic mineral resources and should coordinate the exploration, opening up, utilization, and planning management of rare earth resources. He also stated that we need to strengthen the industrialization process of advanced rare earth new materials, crack down on illegal mining, ecological destruction, and other behaviors, and focus on promoting the development of the rare earth industry in a high-level, intelligent, and green manner.
  The Nikkei said that both sides' export restrictions on each other and how to control competition between the two superpowers may become important topics for discussion at the Xi Jinping summit.