{"text":[[{"start":7.88,"text":"Chinese shipments of rare earth magnets to the US fell last month, with supply of the materials crucial to high-end manufacturing expected to be a point of friction in Donald Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping in Washington this week."}],[{"start":21.52,"text":"China’s shipments of rare earth magnets to the US fell to 512 tonnes in August, 13 per cent lower than the same month a year earlier and 20 per cent lower than July, according to official Chinese customs data released on Sunday."}],[{"start":35.76,"text":"Rare earths are among the dozens of Chinese-controlled critical minerals indispensable in advanced materials and high-tech hardware production."}],[{"start":44.16,"text":"China is the world’s biggest producer and Beijing has used access to rare earths and their magnets as a key point of leverage in talks following the US president’s introduction of tariffs last year."}],[{"start":55.72,"text":"The US believes China has not fully lived up to its commitment of uninterrupted supply, a key part of the one-year trade truce agreed between the two leaders in Busan last November."}],[{"start":66.32,"text":"While China’s export volumes have broadly picked up since the low hit in May 2025 of 46.4 tonnes — in the immediate wake of Trump’s sweeping “liberation day” tariffs — prices remain elevated and industry groups remain concerned that Beijing could again choke supplies, threatening production of everything from cars to fighter jets."}],[{"start":86.76,"text":"Ahead of the Trump-Xi summit, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng met in New York on Sunday. Bessent told the FT that they had agreed to set up a dialogue mechanism for AI. The two sides also discussed an extension of the trade truce."}],[{"start":103,"text":"In a research note earlier in September, analysts from Capital Economics pointed out that the volume of Chinese shipments of rare earth metals to the US was falling at its fastest pace since the pandemic."}],[{"start":114.12,"text":"“Beijing appears willing to test the limits of the truce. It has deliberately kept licence approvals slow and selective,” the analysts said."}],[{"start":122.08,"text":"Over the past year, the US and European countries have stepped up plans and investments to develop a non-Chinese rare earths supply chain. But many analysts believe any significant shift is still years, if not decades, away."}],[{"start":134.4,"text":"China has also curbed exports of rare earths to dozens of Japanese companies this year after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made remarks about Tokyo’s role in a hypothetical conflict over Taiwan, expanding restrictions that were already in place. The volume of Chinese exports of rare earth magnets to Japan and Germany also fell year on year in August by 17 per cent and 22 per cent respectively, the customs data showed."}],[{"start":161.44,"text":"The Capital Economics analysts added that while Beijing has not put the same “squeeze” on supplies to Europe, the European reliance on Chinese rare earths leaves the bloc “in a difficult position” amid China-EU trade tensions."}],[{"start":175.82,"text":"A report from the Royal United Services Institute, a UK national security think-tank, in June highlighted that Beijing has also started using its export control licensing system to gather data and intelligence."}],[{"start":188.42,"text":"“This has created an intelligence gain for Beijing: while western companies do not have complete visibility over their own supply chains, China is gaining unprecedented insight into western dependencies through licence application data,” Rusi said."}],[{"start":208.06,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789992146_1018.mp3"}