China won't export 2 key minerals:

[Bobby]

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230704/has-c ... 63181.html


Has China Just Checkmated the US by Banning Rare Earth Exports?

9 hours ago






China's ban is a response to the West's not-so-well thought out strategy of economically decoupling from the People's Republic, Asia-Pacific consultant Thomas W. Pauken told Sputnik.
China has imposed restrictions on exporting two strategic raw materials, gallium and germanium,
which are crucial for the world's electronic chip-making industry. The US mainstream press called Beijing's move a "second counter-measure" in the unfolding Sino-American tech confrontation, which followed the People's Republic sanctioning America's Micron Technology (MU) in May.
Last October, the Biden administration unveiled an unprecedented set of export controls that restricted Chinese companies from purchasing advanced chips made anywhere in the world using US technology, as well as chip-making equipment.
The US media noted at the time that Washington's move would thwart "China’s technological ambitions," bragging that the global semiconductor industry was "almost entirely" dependent on the US and its allies. Now the American newspapers are admitting China has played "a trump card in the chip war."

Why Didn't Team Biden See This Coming?
The People's Republic boasts 63% of the world’s rare earth mining, 85% of processing, and 92% of magnet production. As per the 2022 US Geological Survey, between 2017 and 2020 the United States imported a whopping 78% of its rare earth metals from China, followed by Estonia (6%), Malaysia (5%) and Japan (4%).
Back in 2019, the Asian giant warned the Trump administration about including rare earths in Beijing’s technology-export restrictions, as Washington stepped up pressure on Chinese telecom firm Huawei. Donald Trump's successor, Joe Biden, continued to raise the stakes in a technological tit-for-tat with China by implementing the CHIPS and Science Act in August 2022 and introducing semiconductor restrictions last October. In December 2022, US policy-makers were lively discussing possible bans on TikTok, a Chinese short-form video hosting service.

[Bobby]

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/04/tech ... index.html


China just played a trump card in the chip war.
Are more export curbs coming?

Laura He
By Laura He, CNN
Updated 8:45 AM EDT, Tue July 4, 2023



Hong Kong CNN  —

A trade war between China and the United States
over the future of semiconductors is escalating.

Beijing hit back Monday by playing a trump card: It imposed export controls on two strategic raw materials, gallium and germanium, that are critical to the global chipmaking industry.

“We see this as China’s second, and much bigger, counter measure to the tech war, and likely a response to the potential US tightening of [its] AI chip ban,” said Jefferies analysts. Sanctioning one of America’s biggest memory chipmakers, Micron Technology (MU), in May was the first, they said.

Here’s what you need to know about gallium and germanium, how they could play into the chip war and whether more countermeasures could be coming.
How did we get here?

Last October, the Biden administration unveiled a set of export controls banning Chinese companies from buying advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license.

Chips are vital for everything from smartphones and self-driving cars to advanced computing and weapons manufacturing. US officials have talked about the move as a measure to protect national security interests.

But it didn’t stop there. For the curbs to be effective, Washington needed other key suppliers, located in the Netherlands and Japan, to join. They did.

China eventually retaliated. In April, it launched a cybersecurity probe into Micron before banning the company from selling to Chinese companies working on key infrastructure projects. On Monday, Beijing announced the restrictions on gallium and germanium.


What are these materials?

Gallium is a soft, silvery metal and is easy to cut with a knife. It’s commonly used to produce compounds that are key materials in semiconductors and light-emitting diodes.

Germanium is a hard, grayish-white and brittle metalloid that is used in the production of optical fibers that can transmit light and electronic data.

The export controls have drawn comparisons with China’s reported attempts in early 2021 to restrict exports of rare earths, a group of 17 elements for which China controls more than half of the global supply.

Gallium and germanium do not belong to this group of minerals. Like rare earths, they can be expensive to mine or produce.

[Bobby]

China will butt slam the West.
Biden stopped them getting lithography chip making machines
so they have replied accordingly.