China’s Rare Earths Move: Empire Gets a Taste of Its Own Medicine

When China told South Korean companies to stop exporting rare earth-containing products to U.S. military firms, it wasn’t just flexing—it was laying down a marker. This wasn’t a routine trade spat. This was the Global South clapping back at imperial hardware. According to Reuters, the Chinese Commerce Ministry made it clear: keep feeding the U.S. war machine, and we’ll come for your pockets.

This is part of Beijing’s tit-for-tat response to Trump’s new round of tariffs—sanctions dressed up as economic nationalism. China’s counterpunch? A crackdown on exports of rare earth elements—those unsung heroes of high-tech warfare. From smart bombs to F-35s, the Pentagon’s toys don’t work without rare earths. And China just threatened the supply.

Tesla’s already feeling it. The production of its Optimus robot hit a wall after China began choking off access to rare earth magnets. It’s not just about raw materials anymore—China’s putting the brakes on finished products too. (Reuters)

And don’t let the headlines fool you—the U.S. is not self-sufficient. It’s got one rare earth mine in California, the Mountain Pass site. But even that operation has been sending ore to China for processing until recently. Now MP Materials is scrambling to set up shop in Texas, trying to localize magnet production. (Associated Press)

Why does this matter? Because China controls over 95% of global rare earth production. That’s not a fluke—it’s strategy. Through long-term planning and aggressive policy, China built an empire under the empire’s nose. Now it holds the switch. (Wikipedia)

And now the empire feels what it’s like to be on the other end of the whip. The U.S. is suddenly discovering what dependency feels like—what it’s like to have your economy held hostage by someone else’s resources. The same thing it’s done to Latin America, to Africa, to the Arab world, it now experiences in miniature.

This rare earth standoff is a symptom of deeper decay. The U.S. can’t produce its own minerals, can’t maintain its own supply chains, and can’t stop picking fights with the very countries it depends on. The contradictions of empire are sharpening—and the Global South is beginning to press the knife.