China keeps its rare-earth curbs on ice, but this time only until 10 January
Beijing's commerce ministry extended the suspension of six October 2025 export rules, including the extraterritorial 0.1% rule, for 61 days rather than a year. The decision lands ahead of a Xi-Trump meeting at APEC in Shenzhen.
China is not tightening rare-earth exports again just yet, but it has stopped handing out long breathing space. Its commerce ministry and customs authority issued Announcement No. 58 on 9 November, keeping six export-control rules from October 2025 suspended. The last suspension ran for a year. This one runs from 11 November to 10 January 2027, which is 61 days.
Which Chinese export rules stay suspended until 10 January?
Six notices from 2025. The two that mattered most outside China cover batteries (licences for high-density lithium-ion cells, cathode materials and graphite anode material) and the so-called 0.1% rule.
That second one is the far-reaching one. It would require a Chinese licence to export goods made outside China, in Europe for instance, whenever Chinese-origin rare earths made up 0.1% or more of their value. A motor or wind turbine built in Portugal with Chinese magnets could, in principle, need Beijing’s sign-off.
Rules on the equipment and know-how for mining, separating and turning rare earths into magnets also stay frozen, as do licences for industrial diamonds.
What stays in force?
The April 2025 regime was not touched. Seven heavy rare earths, dysprosium and terbium among them, which go into electric-car motor magnets, still need a licence to leave China.
Why did China only grant two months?
The date matches the US-China trade truce, which Washington has also extended only to 10 January, along with tariff pauses and the suspension of company blacklists on both sides. US officials quoted by the Financial Times say Beijing has delivered about two-thirds of its rare-earth commitments, a figure China disputes. Donald Trump is expected to meet Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in Shenzhen later this month.
Two months is enough time to negotiate. It is not much for a European factory trying to plan, and rare earths are not the only part manufacturers are counting: Stellantis has already warned that its Fiat Pandina line could stop until December for want of a single chip.
By Beatriz Mota
Image: Brücke-Osteuropa / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
