Top U.S. officials on Wednesday criticised China’s expansion of rare earth export controls, warning it threatens global supply chains, though they said Beijing could still reverse course to avoid U.S. retaliation.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer called China’s proposed restrictions a “global supply-chain power grab,” while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stressed that Washington does not want to escalate the conflict, which has roiled markets and strained U.S.-China relations.
As of Tuesday, President Donald Trump still expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month. Greer noted that China has not yet implemented the new regulatory system, and the U.S. has not enacted a retaliatory 100% tariff increase on Chinese imports.
The two sides have maintained a delicate six-month truce on tariffs, repeatedly extended in 90-day increments. Bessent suggested a longer extension could be possible ahead of the leaders’ meeting.
The tensions come after both countries imposed port fees on each other’s ships, adding a new dimension to the trade fight. While the International Monetary Fund upgraded its global growth forecast, officials said China’s actions violate previous U.S.-China agreements and highlight the risks of supply dependence.
Bessent warned that if China proves to be an unreliable supplier, Washington could implement additional export controls or tariffs, including on Chinese purchases of Russian oil, in coordination with European partners. He also noted evidence that Chinese components were used in Russian drones in Ukraine.
Officials said they remain optimistic that discussions with China could de-escalate the situation, while underscoring the potential economic consequences of continued Chinese restrictions on rare earth exports, critical for technology and defence sectors worldwide.
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European leaders gathered in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, for the ninth European Political Community (EPC) summit, with security, defence and energy high on the agenda. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks focused on peace, trade and regional cooperation.
Iran will not let a single particle of its enriched nuclear material leave the country, and any new U.S. attack would be met with strikes on distant American bases, Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei has said.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is stepping down amid reports linking him to a woman suspected by U.S. authorities of spying for China, throwing the future of the $4 trillion chipmaker into uncertainty.
Kazakhstan’s security service has arrested Nurlan Zhakupov, CEO of Samruk-Kazyna, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, on suspicion of corruption. Yelzhas Otynshiyev, Chairman of KTZ, Kazakhstan’s national railway firm has also been detained.
Eight people have been killed and at least 17 injured after an apartment building collapsed into a neighbouring construction site in Brooklyn, New York, as rescuers continued searching the rubble for possible survivors.
BMW is recalling more than 720,000 vehicles in the U.S. over a fire risk, warning owners to park outside and away from buildings until repairs are completed. The recall follows 10 reported fires involving cars previously repaired for the same fault.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says 3.7 million children in Afghanistan are suffering from acute malnutrition, as worsening drought and funding shortages threaten to deepen the crisis amid the COP31 climate summit in Türkiye.
A consortium of Türkiye’s Limak and Qatar’s HBK Contracting has won an international tender to build and operate a new airport terminal in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, under a 23-year public-private partnership, with the project potentially costing up to $300 million.
Spain’s parliament has approved a government package aimed at easing the country’s housing crisis, a day after workers staged the first general strike in 14 years over soaring housing costs.
Here's your AnewZ Technology Daily Brief for the 13th of November. This week, a Microsoft outage hit Australian agencies, Google restricted mapping data in South Korea, a lawsuit targeted advanced AI development, and Nvidia faced a leadership crisis after Jensen Huang's resignation.
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