China's rare earth threat

The US-China tariff war may have ostensibly eased into a softer phase of negotiations, but one stealth missile fired by China in its early days has only hit home now. The potential fallout is global, and India is very much within range. On April 4, two days after President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz, Beijing had hit back by calling halt to its export of rare earth magnets. China controls over 90 per cent of the global processing capacity for this key component, used in everything from automobiles and fighter jets to robotics and home appliances. As it leverages this monopoly by slow-rolling licences, stockpiles everywhere are falling as rapidly as alarm is rising.