China bans export of rare earth processing kit::Beijing also wants its human gene-editing kit – and LiDAR– to stay at home

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    27 months ago

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    Chinese state media reports the update includes items Beijing feels should not be freely exported in order to safeguard China’s “economic and technological rights and interests.”

    Analysis from outside China suggests the expanded list bans tech for making rare-earth magnets, mining rare earths, and refining the substances.

    China is currently the world’s dominant source of the substances, and has long pursued a policy of local value-adding by refining the stuff and/or building it into useful components rather than shipping raw product offshore.

    That policy has given Beijing leverage over important supply chains – power it displayed in July 2023 when it restricted the export of Gallium and Germanium, which are required for semiconductor manufacturing.

    China’s refreshed export ban list also added cell cloning and gene editing tech intended for human use for the first time.

    So did LiDAR – a move that looks very much like a tit-for-tat action after US lawmakers recently called for bans on exports so that China can’t use American-made tech to build autonomous systems.


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