China has suspended several export restrictions on critical minerals and rare earth materials to the United States, signaling that a tentative trade truce between the two economic powers is holding. The decision, announced Friday by China’s Ministry of Commerce, follows the Oct. 30 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea.
The ministry said the suspension would last one year and cover materials essential to military hardware, semiconductors, and high-tech manufacturing. The export limits, first imposed on Oct. 9, included restrictions on certain rare earth elements, lithium battery materials, and processing technologies.
Beijing also lifted retaliatory curbs on gallium, germanium, antimony, and other high-strength materials such as synthetic diamonds and boron nitrides. Those curbs were originally introduced in December 2024 in response to Washington’s expanded semiconductor export controls targeting China.
China classifies these resources as “dual-use items,” meaning they can serve both civilian and military purposes. Their suspension removes a key pressure point in an industry that underpins much of the global electronics and defense supply chain.
In addition to reversing material-specific restrictions, China suspended end-user and end-use verification checks for graphite exports to the U.S. Those checks had been introduced alongside the 2024 export ban and were seen as a way to scrutinize the downstream use of critical resources.
The rollback aligns with terms from the recent trade deal between Beijing and Washington. Under that agreement, the U.S. will reduce tariffs on Chinese imports by 10 percentage points and delay enforcement of “reciprocal tariffs” until Nov. 10, 2026. The U.S. also postponed a pending rule, announced Sept. 29, that would have blacklisted subsidiaries of Chinese companies from its entity list.
China remains the dominant global producer of rare earth elements and critical minerals, resources vital to both renewable energy and advanced electronics. Its latest move temporarily eases the resource tension at the center of the ongoing technological and trade competition between the two countries.
Featured image credits: Freepik
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