bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Chad Bray

As China looks for ways to retaliate against the United States in a rapidly escalating trade war, one potential target that is looming large, particularly for the technology sector, is rare earth metals.
The minerals are vital to the production of components that power electric vehicles, anchor the audio and camera systems of Apple iPhones and help the US military’s guided missiles reach their targets.
The elements – little known beyond chemists, geologists and speciality manufacturers until their political importance became more apparent in recent years – are also predominantly mined and refined in China.
As trade tensions have escalated, analysts are questioning whether Beijing will use the “nuclear option”, its dominance in the industry, as a check on efforts by US President Donald Trump to place tariffs on nearly all goods exported from China, as he seeks to change years of Chinese industrial and trade policy.
Speculation has been rampant this week after Chinese President Xi Jinping and his top trade negotiator were photographed at a rare earth mining and processing plant in China’s eastern Jiangxi province, a key region for mining rare earths used in electric vehicles.


Stocks of Chinese rare earth companies have soared since the visit, as investors anticipate a tightening in the supply of some rare earths and potentially higher prices.
The prices of so-called heavy rare earths, which are used in batteries for electric vehicles and in defence applications, have risen 30 per cent this year, said Helen Lau, senior analyst and head of metals and mining research at Argonaut in Hong Kong.
“I think it is a little bit reckless, from my point of view, for China to ban the export of rare earths to the US directly,” Lau said. “There’s always some way to have a similar impact … Maybe we want to reduce exports to everyone. That is a likely scenario.”
What leverage does China’s rare earths dominance hold in trade war?
Lau said she believes China, regardless of the trade war, will ultimately move to reduce exports of rare earths to meet its own domestic demand.
“Everyone knows that China needs rare earths for its electric-vehicle industry,” Lau said. “Electric-vehicle production is very strong – every single month it is growing in high double digits, and this year it has doubled from last year. The demand for rare earths is very strong.”
A key time to watch will be June, when China is expected to set its mining quota for rare earths for the second half of the year. The first half quota was 60,000 tonnes, the same as last year, she said.


Rare earths are one of the few categories of products that have avoided US tariffs despite threats last year by the Trump administration.
China has put its own retaliatory tariffs on US-produced rare earth elements and several categories of these minerals are set to face additional tariffs of up to 25 per cent come June 1.
The 17 elements, with sometimes hard to pronounce names such as lanthanum, neodymium and ytterbium, share similar chemical and physical properties. They are more plentiful than precious metals such as gold and platinum, but can be difficult and expensive to refine and extract.
They are used to provide precision polishes to flat-panel displays, remove impurities in steelmaking and to make phosophers used in incandescent and LED lights. Some are even used as pigments in ceramics.

The US used to dominate the industry, serving as the world’s leading miner until the 1980s, when it was overtaken by China, according to data from the US Geological Survey. Lower labour costs and more lenient environmental standards are some of the reasons why mining migrated from the US.
Last year, China accounted for seven out of every 10 tonnes of rare earth elements mined worldwide and was the biggest exporter to the US, according to data from the Geological Survey and the US International Trade Commission.
In addition, China has moved to create an ecosystem that not only extracts the raw materials, but produces components that rely on rare earths, such as magnets vital to missile guidance systems and synthetic gems used in high-power lasers.
China’s unwavering dominance in the market has raised concerns among companies and policymakers, particularly as China has used it as a weapon in the past.
During a diplomatic stand-off in 2010, China briefly limited exports of rare earth materials to Japan in a row after a Chinese trawler collided with Japanese patrol boats near a disputed island. China did so without publicly acknowledging the restriction.


That same year, Beijing placed quotas, licences and taxes on rare earth elements as the worldwide use of rare earths in clean energy and defence technologies was on the rise. China removed these restrictions in 2014 after the US, Japan and members of the European Union complained to the World Trade Organisation.
Frankie Chan, senior research analyst at Emperor Securities in Hong Kong, said that Xi’s visit to Jiangxi was likely an attempt to send a “strong message” to the US.
“We have seen China use these as an effective means to retaliate,” Chan said. “Maybe after June, there will be some follow-up action. Now it’s just a message – I have the upper hand on the rare earth front. If we still keep on without any improvement, I will retaliate.”
Presidents Trump and Xi are expected to meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka in late June. Chan said he expects Beijing will begin with a small quota or restriction, and increase it on a step-by-step basis if things do not improve.
The US Government Accountability Office, an independent, non-partisan agency, warned three years ago that China’s dominance “may pose risks to the continued availability” of rare earth materials for defence applications in the future.

The Mountain Pass Mine in San Bernardino County, California, is the only producer of rare earth elements in the US and its raw materials are refined in China. The mine was acquired out of bankruptcy in 2017 by an American consortium backed by China’s Shenghe Resources Holding.
On Monday, Lynas Corporation, an Australian mining company, and American chemicals company Blue Line Corporation announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a plant to produce separated medium and heavy rare earth products in Hondo, Texas, “to close a critical supply chain gap for United States manufacturers”.
Chinese rare earths firm’s California mine caught in trade war crossfire
Concerns about availability and rising prices have spurred technology manufacturers to find ways to recycle and reuse rare earth materials from their devices, and has led to increased exploration by governments worldwide.
Japanese scientists recently announced they had discovered a concentrated deposit of rare earths on the sea floor about 2,000 kilometres southeast of Tokyo.
Even as tensions are rising between the world’s two largest economies, Ryan Castilloux, managing director at Adamas Intelligence in Amsterdam, said he doubts China would put a ban on rare earth exports to the US.
“It would be a last leverage in a very extreme situation,” Castilloux said. “Once China uses its rare earth dominance as a political tool, it would push end users to look for alternatives.”
Additional reporting by Viola Zhou


Trade war: will China use ‘nuclear option’ of banning rare earth exports to US?

China dominates the rare earth metals industry. Photo: Reuters

Environmental Manager Scott Honan surveys Molycorp's Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California's Mojave Desert. The mine produces 3 percent of the world's rare earth elements. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

(190520) -- GANZHOU, May 20, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about the production process and operation of the JL MAG Rare-Earth Co. Ltd. as well as the development of the rare earth industry in the city of Ganzhou in east China's Jiangxi Province on May 20, 2019. Xi Jinping visited Jiangxi Province Monday on an inspection tour. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

The chassis and batteries of an electric car are displayed at Auto Shanghai 2019. Regardless of the trade war, Beijing will ultimately move to reduce exports of rare earths to meet its own domestic demand, specifically from its electric-vehicle industry. Photo: AFP

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China accounted for seven out of every 10 tonnes of rare earth elements mined worldwide last year and was the biggest exporter to America
As trade tensions have escalated, analysts are questioning whether Beijing will use its dominance of the industry as a check on US tariffs



Rare earth metals loom large as a potential target for an export ban as China looks for ways to retaliate against the US in a rapidly escalating trade war.


Rare earths

Trade

US-China trade war

US-China trade war: All stories

Trade war: will China use ‘nuclear option’ of banning rare earth exports to US?

China accounted for seven out of every 10 tonnes of rare earth elements mined worldwide last year and was the biggest exporter to America As trade tensions have escalated, analysts are questioning whether Beijing will use its dominance of the industry as a check on US tariffs

China accounted for seven out of every 10 tonnes of rare earth elements mined worldwide last year and was the biggest exporter to America

As trade tensions have escalated, analysts are questioning whether Beijing will use its dominance of the industry as a check on US tariffs