Japan and china "merajuk"?

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China and Japan aren’t talking. Will their rare earth trade go quiet?​

With bilateral relations at a low and Beijing already enacting limited export controls on critical minerals, fears of a broader ban grow​

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Kandy WongandRalph Jennings
Published: 6:00am, 31 May 2026Updated: 7:55am, 31 May 2026

When China broke out one of its “big guns” in last year’s trade war with the US – an array of export controls on rare earth elements – it helped spur a temporary truce in the pitched conflict between the two economic superpowers.




After Beijing’s announcement, many around the world expressed shock at the size and scope of China’s response to Washington’s sky-high tariffs. But for Japan, a squeeze on rare earth shipments was not so novel a concept.

In 2010, following the collision of a Chinese fishing trawler with Japanese patrol boats near the disputed Diaoyu Islands and the detention of the trawler’s captain, Beijing threatened “severe countermeasures”. Some Japanese businesses began to report their supplies of the critical minerals, largely sourced from China, had slowed or stopped entirely.

 

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Supply Chain

Japan to provide rare-earth refining tech to Malaysia​

Tokyo aims to diversify supply chains by helping bolster production

Crushed raw ore at MP Materials' rare-earth mining and processing facility in Mountain Pass, California. (Photo by David Becker)

RINTO HORIKOSHI
March 9, 2026 02:19 JST

 

[syed putra]

Only Malays can get along with Chinese, indians, japs, Yankees, Arabs, Persians....