Plans to give an urgent ride for Mr. Zelensky out of Ukraine are revived.
"The Chinese government followed through on promises it made publicly after a recent summit, but has not yet taken other actions sought by the White House.
China’s Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday that it had suspended for a year a wide range of export controls that it issued last month, but did not address other actions that the White House described as Chinese commitments after a recent summit.
The ministry said that it was suspending six sets of export control regulations that it had issued on Oct. 9. Those rules, which were going to take effect in stages through Dec. 1, barred the transfer out of China of rare earth processing equipment, battery manufacturing equipment and certain super-hard materials needed to make semiconductors, solar panels and armor-piercing ammunition.
The suspension of these rules is set to last until Nov. 10 next year.
Rare earths are metals mainly used in the manufacture of cars, semiconductors, robots, drones and many other advanced manufactured products. They are also needed in smaller quantities for the production of fighter jets, missiles, tanks and other military equipment.
After Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, met President Trump on Oct. 30 in Busan, South Korea, the Chinese government said that it would suspend the Oct. 9 rules. The White House went further, saying that China would also issue general licenses for the export of rare earths and four other materials — gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite — for which China has also imposed restrictions over the past two years.
“The general license means the de facto removal of controls China imposed since 2023,” according to a White House statement on Nov. 1 that described the American perspective on what the two leaders had agreed.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has said that it would issue general licenses for the export of critical minerals. But the ministry has not provided any information on how long those licenses might last nor how much information would need to be provided by companies applying for the licenses.
The ministry has not replied to requests on Monday and again on Friday for comment about the general licenses.
Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, had described the Oct. 9 export controls as “a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world.” The rules did not just cover the export from China of a wide range of products that include rare earths and other critical minerals. They would have also covered the manufacture outside of China of many products that used even small amounts of Chinese rare earths.
The ministry made no mention on Friday of changing the stringent export controls that it imposed on April 4 on exports of seven kinds of rare earths and powerful magnets made from them.
Under those April rules, China has required that overseas companies provide an enormous amount of technical information about their products in order to obtain six-month licenses for the export from China of small quantities of restricted rare earths. China processes practically the entire world’s supply of these rare earth elements. Many factories in the United States and Europe remain critically short of magnets needed for the electric motors that run systems like the brake motors and seats in cars.
Since April, China has also barred any export of these rare earths for military applications. This has begun to slow the production of military equipment in the West and is making it harder for Europe in particular to supply Ukraine with arms to defend itself against Russia.
China has tilted strongly toward Russia during the events in Ukraine, keeping the Russian economy afloat with extensive purchases of Russian raw materials and selling a wide range of industrial equipment to Russia.
Even with the one-year suspension of the October regulations, companies outside China may still have trouble obtaining needed supplies. For months, mines and refineries outside of China have complained that Chinese suppliers were no longer willing to sell vital equipment to them. Many companies involved in critical minerals in China are partly or entirely owned by the Chinese government.
China’s General Administration of Customs announced separately on Friday that it was reinstating the right of three American companies to ship soybeans to China, and would also allow U.S. exports of logs to China to resume.” [1]
1. China Suspends Some Export Controls on Critical Minerals but Retains Others. Bradsher, Keith. New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Nov 7, 2025.
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