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According to the information released by the relevant Chinese authorities, since August last year, the mainland has completely stopped exporting gallium and germanium, two rare minerals, to the United States. The export ban is not time-sensitive.
This will have a very huge impact on the economic development and industrial production of the United States. So why is China doing this?
What will be the impact of our blockade on the United States? Let's talk about this now.
China's ban on the export of gallium and germanium has a great impact
For the United States, China's direct suspension of exports of gallium and germanium, two rare minerals, has had a great impact. Because these two minerals are rare minerals, they are also necessary minerals for the production of various important electronic instrument parts, including the United States, which also imports gallium and germanium in large quantities from China.
This is because there are a large number of gallium and germanium minerals stored in the mainland, and China attaches great importance to the refining and production technology of minerals.
So over time, our country produces and exports more than half of the world's gallium and germanium.
Therefore, China's export ban will have a devastating impact on the United States and Western countries. Before China's ban officially came into effect, the United States tried its best to buy some more gallium and germanium storage, but the effect was not good.
According to the information released by the US Department of Defense, their domestic inventory is only enough to consume for 1 to 2 years.
This forced the United States to find ways to recollect gallium and germanium from the old ordnance weapons. Moreover, the U.S. response is to find a way to find alternative trading partners in the international market, after all, China is not the only country with gallium and germanium reserves.
However, objectively speaking, the effect of the United States' actions is not good, because Australia and other countries do have gallium and germanium reserves, but in order to mine the ore, it is necessary to establish a complete mining system. The amount of investment required is too large.
And after finding enough workers, they must be trained and targeted purification techniques should be carried out.
Otherwise, only the ore will be dug out, and industrial production will not be possible, because the raw ore has a large number of impurities, and it is dangerous to use these impurities for military production.
U.S. experts also claim that it could take a decade for the U.S. and its allies to rebuild their industrial lines if China completely halts exports of gallium and germanium resources.
But these countries' inventories are not enough to consume ten years, so the United States is still asking China to stop export controls.
In the description of this incident in the United States and Western media circles, it is also said that it is China that threatens the trade and industrial security of the United States and the West. So is this really the case?
China's export control orders are legal and compliant
In fact, the United States and Western countries are not qualified to make irresponsible remarks on this matter, because China's complete ban on the export of gallium and germanium is in accordance with the law. The ore itself is in China, and this is not the ore we bought from the outside world.
In other words, these resources belong to China, so China has the complete right to decide what to do with these ores.
These ores are indeed important raw materials for the production of electronic instrument parts, but this does not mean that China must export these things.
Moreover, with the continuous completion of China's industrial upgrading, our demand for rare minerals such as gallium and germanium ore will further increase.
Then, in order to protect China's own commercial and industrial interests, there is no problem at all in controlling the export of this important ore.
No matter where the United States appeals, it doesn't make sense. Moreover, in the past few years, hasn't the United States often suppressed China through so-called regulatory means?
The U.S. approach to Huawei is to not allow U.S. domestic semiconductor companies and semiconductor companies from other Western countries to export various important industrial instruments, including lithography machines, to Huawei.
Later, the order was extended to prohibit the export of lithography machines to any Chinese companies. The reason is that the lithography machines produced by the Dutch company use American technology, and the United States is afraid that selling industrial instruments using American technology to China will cause so-called technology leakage.
The fact that the United States and Western countries do not export lithography machines to China has made us very uncomfortable in the past few years. Because the lithography machine itself is a key instrument used to produce chips, even if the chip design ability of the mainland company is strong, there is no way to convert the design into a physical object, which is of little significance.
As far as China is concerned, we have made two preparations for the control measures of the United States and the West: First, we have continuously issued diplomatic appeals to the international community, hoping that the United States and Western countries will not continue to attack Chinese companies without reason.
Second, it is to carry out the research and development of local lithography machines as soon as possible, and strive to break through the blockade of European and American countries. After several years of hard work, the continent has now achieved a decisive technological breakthrough in this field.
Although we can still buy some lithography machines, the United States and Western countries do not export lithography machines to China, and they can no longer jam China's neck. Because our lithography factory is also able to make chips.
Therefore, it is not that the United States and Western countries do not control China, but that China has enough cards in its hands to break the blockade.
However, if China does not accumulate technology in advance and is not prepared in this regard, the consequences may be unimaginable.
After China was subject to regulatory sanctions, we have repeatedly expressed our hope that the United States and Western countries will stop the sanctions. They should not abuse the so-called national security measures to deliberately harm the interests of Chinese companies.
But every time the United States and Western countries have turned a deaf ear to China's warnings. Under such circumstances, China's current control of the export of some important resources is itself a counterattack launched after it can no longer bear it, and China is telling the United States and Western countries with practical actions that their blockade of China has no effect.
At the same time, China has hole cards in its hands, which can also make European and American countries get stuck.
And we are not optimistic about whether the United States and Western countries will be able to break through the blockade quickly in the short term, as China has done.
China was able to break through the blockade mainly because we had been prepared. Moreover, China's system has determined that it is possible to concentrate on big things.
However, the United States and Western countries cannot do this, and the vast majority of American capitalists only want to focus on making money.
Even if the U.S. government calls on them to revive industry and revive mining, those Wall Street financial tycoons won't invest much in the real economy, which is slower to make money. Relying solely on the financial investment of the US and Western governments will not have much effect in the short term.
It's not that China has left no room for it
In fact, although China has now decided to control the export of gallium and germanium, two important resources, it is not that it has left no step for the United States and Western countries, and we are now only controlling exports, rather than issuing export bans.
In other words, these two resources are not impossible to export, but they must be approved by the relevant departments for which countries and in what quantities they are to be exported.
This means that if the United States and Western countries are willing to abandon their hostility to China in terms of science and technology, economy, and strategy, we can also consider relaxing the control order on the export of gallium and germanium resources. For example, certain countries are allowed to continue to buy resources from China.
But if the United States and Western countries are unwilling to accept China's good intentions, it is their own problem. China's targeted bans are only intended to safeguard China's national interests.
We know that this move may affect the overall layout of global semiconductors, for example, causing a slowdown in production capacity and rising prices in related industries, which is a pain that Western countries must bear.
They have been using the same tactics against China for the past few years. We have also endured the pain and come to this day.
But what we can see is that the United States does not seem to have the idea of relenting.
The day before China officially stopped exporting two rare minerals to the United States, gallium and germanium, the U.S. Congress issued a ban on the U.S. Department of Defense from purchasing batteries made by six Chinese companies.
These include CATL and China's electric vehicle giant BYD, which will take effect in October 2027.
The ban is also part of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the United States. This means that the U.S. government will continue to attack and suppress China from a political perspective. Moreover, the US ban is just one day before the ban in China is officially implemented, which means that the United States is ready to confront China to the end. But this is not in the interests of the United States at all.
Today, China's technological advantages in the electric vehicle industry are well known to the world. China's electric vehicles have the advantages of good quality, avant-garde design, and reliable technology, which the United States and Western countries cannot catch up with in a short period of time.
Then even if the United States does not buy the products produced by these electric vehicle industrial companies in China, there will be other countries that will buy them.
Because the quality of Chinese products is reliable, and because China has a whole industrial line, the products we produce will most likely have a price advantage.
Therefore, the so-called sanctions of the US Department of Defense have a greater impact on Chinese companies than nothing, not to mention that the US regulations will not take effect until October 2027, which is still more than four years away.
More than four years has been enough for China's electric vehicle companies to occupy more international markets in an orderly manner.
epilogue
In fact, China does not want to get into too much trouble with the United States, because after all, China and the United States are both big countries, and the stability of relations between the two countries plays a positive role in maintaining international order and world peace. But this does not mean that China will make concessions to the United States without a bottom line.
When Chinese companies are suppressed by the United States, the business interests of Chinese companies will suffer. Then, the Chinese government will not sit idly by and ignore this matter, and the Chinese government has the right and obligation to seek justice for Chinese enterprises.
Therefore, I still hope that the United States will not continue to inexplicably restrict Chinese enterprises, which will bring greater losses to the legitimate interests of Chinese enterprises and deal a blow to Sino-US relations. And China will also respond in a targeted manner after being hit, so the actions of the United States can be described as hurting others and hurting itself.