Ariana News Agency-\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n President Xi Jinping\u2019s visit to a rare earths plant last week had sparked speculation that China would use its dominant position as an exporter of rare earths to the United States as leverage in the trade war.<\/p>\n Rare earths are a group of 17 chemical elements used in everything from high-tech consumer electronics to military equipment. The prospect that their value could soar as a result of the trade war caused sharp increases in the share prices of producers, including the company visited by Xi.<\/p>\n While China has so far not explicitly said it would restrict rare earths sales to the United States, Chinese media has strongly implied this will happen.<\/p>\n In a commentary headlined \u201cUnited States, don\u2019t underestimate China\u2019s ability to strike back\u201d, the official People\u2019s Daily noted the United States\u2019 \u201cuncomfortable\u201d dependence on rare earths from China.<\/p>\n \u201cWill rare earths become a counter weapon for China to hit back against the pressure the United States has put on for no reason at all? The answer is no mystery,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n \u201cUndoubtedly, the U.S. side wants to use the products made by China\u2019s exported rare earths to counter and suppress China\u2019s development. The Chinese people will never accept this!\u201d the ruling Communist Party newspaper added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe advise the U.S. side not to underestimate the Chinese side\u2019s ability to safeguard its development rights and interests. Don\u2019t say we didn\u2019t warn you!\u201d<\/p>\n The expression \u201cdon\u2019t say we didn\u2019t warn you\u201d is generally only used by official Chinese media to warn rivals over major areas of disagreement, for example during a border dispute with India in 2017 and in 1978 before China invaded Vietnam.<\/p>\n In its own editorial on Wednesday, sister paper the Global Times said an export ban on rare earths \u201cis a powerful weapon if used in the China-U.S. trade war.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China is ready to use rare earths to strike back in a trade war with the United States, Chinese newspapers warned on Wednesday in strongly worded commentaries on a move that would escalate tensions between the world\u2019s two largest economies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_mat_hreflang_tags":[],"addvideo":"","video_duration":"","farsit":"","target":"0","top_stories":"0","top":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[124,577,47],"class_list":["post-3412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-china","tag-trade-war","tag-us"],"acf":{"myctype":"change","target":false,"top_stories":false,"top":false,"farsit":""},"yoast_head":"\n