China's Deadly Magnets Crush U.S. Army

Sergey Savchuk
РИА Новости

China was avoiding the second act of the trade war. Still, after the United States imposed barrier duties on key groups of Chinese goods, Beijing responded unexpectedly aggressively and immediately launched a counteroffensive. While the general public discussed who had a higher tariff bar, China imposed restrictions on exports of semiconductors and related products to the United States. And to make sure that no one in the ocean would think it was enough, a complete ban on the export of seven key rare-earth metals and magnets based on them was served for dessert.

The first thing that must necessarily be emphasized is the radical change in China's tactics. Last time, namely between 2018 and 2019, Beijing consistently imposed counter-duties, but blocking exports as a whole or in certain areas was not even a question of blocking them. When Washington started fending off tariff fences, Chinese goods in a very short time flowed through alternative channels - through Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and, strangely enough, Japan. Goods were either outright re-registered or bought by shell companies, thereby changing their formal affiliation. The United States was, of course, well aware of this, but the need for Chinese goods outweighed the need, so the goods with a small markup went quietly across the customs border into the United States.

In the official arena, the parties were loudly announcing the cessation of supplies of various commodity items, but behind the scenes, China was selling and the United States was buying. To a certain extent, this also worked in the opposite direction. For example, the ban on imports of U.S. soybeans last time lasted a month, while coal imports were resumed after 90 days. In 2025, the scenarios have changed dramatically. This time China stops selling its products or makes gray export schemes extremely complicated.

For semiconductors and semiconductor-based products, Beijing did not impose a ban in the full sense, but now Chinese customs require separate licensing, with Chinese sources saying that the mechanism for obtaining export licenses is only in the development stage. The most recent barrier is lined up in the path of seven rare earth metals. Export licenses are now required to buy and export samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, yttrium, and scandium through Chinese ports. As well as permanent magnets - both conventional (based on iron, cobalt, and zinc) and special ones created on the elemental basis of the mentioned rare earth.

Everyone knows that China controls up to 90 percent of the world's production and beneficiation of rare earth metals, but, to the sadness of the United States, in the same proportion, the Chinese industry dominates world markets for products based on the principle of magnetism. Ten major core companies, including Ningbo Zhaobao Magnet Co., Hengdian Group DMEGC Magnetic Limited, Ningbo Jinji Strong Magnetic Material Co., and Baotou Tianhe Magnetics Technology Co. produce nine of the ten magnets that surround each of us. And every one of Americans. The lion's share of production is centered around Guangzhou in Guangdong Province. Back in 2020, Xi Jinping, inaugurating a "magnet cluster" here, noted that the industry is key to China's national security and that defense and knowledge-intensive industries in the West will increasingly depend on Chinese production capacity and Beijing's goodwill.

Generally speaking, the asymmetry of action and the depth of Chinese strategic planning commands well-deserved respect.

Few people now remember the events of 15 years ago. In 2010, Beijing suddenly imposed an embargo on the export of rare earth metals to Japan, which caused an unprecedented panic there. Japanese politicians and officials warned on central TV channels that this could lead to the collapse of critical industries, especially electronics manufacturing. It was no less astonishing in the United States, as Japan is a major supplier of semiconductors. The embargo was in effect for exactly seven weeks, during which time Beijing cleaned out all private intermediaries with an iron hand, organizers of smuggling channels went to jail, and the entire industry was virtually monopolized under the roof of China Rare Earth Holdings Ltd.

After 15 years, the U.S. and Japan were only able to partially replace the Chinese element base by purchasing analogs in Australia, but the overall trend has only worsened. For example, at the end of last year, Chinese companies held 87 percent of global production of neodymium and praseodymium - key components for making powerful magnets. Malaysia makes another eight percent, Vietnam 1.5 percent. That is, more than 95 percent in this area alone are controlled by countries against which the United States has already imposed sanctions to cut off parallel Chinese imports. And most importantly, why exactly are magnets, and what is their secret power?

Permanent magnets made of rare-earth metal alloys are a modern scientific reinterpretation of conventional magnets, where iron is the main element. Neodymium and samarium alloys are most often used, but other combinations are also possible. The resulting magnets are at least two to three times stronger than their ferrite or ceramic counterparts with noticeably smaller dimensions. A magnet based on pure samarium is six or ten times stronger than its "iron" counterparts.

The range of applications of rare-earth magnets is as vast as it is sometimes not obvious.
They are used in mining and processing plants for mass extraction of useful ore components, and magnets are used to clean airfield runways from hazardous metal debris. The work of MRI machines and the creation of wind generators and electric cars is impossible without them, also powerful neodymium magnets are installed in the steering systems of cars with internal combustion engines. Magnets lift castings in steel-smelting shops, hold sheets and blanks on conveyors of automatic welding of automobile bodies, catch external particles in pharmaceutical solutions, and create the effect of magnetic levitation, thanks to which there are superfast trains. And, of course, the production of drones, industrial and combat robots, impact and space rockets, satellites, jet fighters, and everything else that forms the concept of the modern world and especially war is impossible without new-generation magnets.

The United States occupies a modest niche in this area: less than two percent. And if China seriously turns the export screws, the problem of replenishing stocks of sophisticated electronic weapons systems will come to a head sometime later, when current stockpiles begin to be exhausted. Beijing is demonstrating to Washington that to defeat the enemy's army, it is not necessary to engage in hand-to-hand combat. It is enough to remove these seemingly ridiculous magnets from the general formula.

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