Trump says 'no reason' to meet China's Xi after Beijing imposes rare earth restrictions

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Donald Trump said Friday that there is "no reason" to sit down with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at an upcoming summit after Beijing announced sweeping restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals.

Trump said China is "becoming very hostile," pointing to export controls it announced Thursday on rare earths "and virtually anything else they can think of." The US president said Beijing sent "hostile" letters to nations worldwide detailing the new curbs.

"There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the world 'captive,' but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time, starting with the 'magnets' and, other elements that they have quietly amassed into somewhat of a Monopoly position, a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least. But the U.S. has monopoly positions also, much stronger and more far reaching than China’s," Trump wrote on his social mTruth Social platform.

"Things that were routine are no longer routine at all. I have not spoken to President Xi because there was no reason to do so. This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World. I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so," he added.

Trump and Xi were expected to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea later this month.

China announced the new rare earth export restrictions on Thursday. They widen limits on processing and manufacturing technologies and prohibit cooperation with foreign companies without prior government authorization, state media reported.

The Commerce Ministry said the measures aim to safeguard national security and interests by imposing export controls on rare earth-related technologies, including mining, smelting and separation, magnetic material production, and recycling of secondary resources, according to the English-language Global Times daily.

Technologies and related data involving rare earth mining, smelting and separation, metal smelting, magnetic material manufacturing, and rare earth secondary resource recycling, as well as the assembly, maintenance, and upgrading of related production lines, cannot be exported without official permission, the ministry said.

The move follows sweeping controls introduced by Beijing in April that triggered global shortages before new deals with Europe and the US resumed shipments.

Trump said that depending on what China says about its new restrictions, he "will be forced, as president of the United States of America, to financially counter their move."

"For every Element that they have been able to monopolize, we have two. I never thought it would come to this but perhaps, as with all things, the time has come," he said.

"Ultimately, though potentially painful, it will be a very good thing, in the end, for the U.S.A. One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America. There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration," he added.