‘It’s China vs. the world’: US will ‘neither be commanded nor controlled,’ says treasury secretary Scott Bessent

China’s recent restrictions on rare earth exports are a “global supply chain power grab,” said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Wednesday while speaking to reporters at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., along with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Bessent also targeted China, saying its actions amounted to a provocation. The remarks were the latest sign that the US-China trade relations continue to deteriorate after Beijing’s announcement last week of new limits on rare earth minerals and related technologies. In response to China’s move, President Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on China as well as export controls on “any and all critical software.” China can avoid the new tariffs only if it drops the proposed export controls, Greer told NBC News.

“If some in the Chinese government want to slow down the global economy through disappointing actions and through economic coercion, the Chinese economy will be hurt the most—and make no mistake: this is China vs. the world," said Bessent.

Both Bessent and Greer sounded optimistic about Beijing backing down and returning to the negotiating table

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“Our expectation is that they won’t implement [the controls] and that we’ll be able to be back to where we were a week ago,” said Greer, “where we had the tariff levels we’ve agreed to and we have the flow of rare earth magnets we agreed to.”

Bessent added that Washington was conferring with its allied trade partners about a unified response to the restrictions. “This is China vs. the world,” he said, adding, “We and our allies will neither be commanded, nor controlled.”

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Rare earth minerals are critical for manufacturing a wide range of products like batteries, electric vehicles, household goods, TVs and smartphones, and solar panels.

Besides, even after three rounds of trade talks called successful by officials, China has still not officially approved the sale of TikTok US and has not bought any soybeans from American farmers since May.

Both Greer and Bessent said the current 90-day tariff pause in place with China—renewed at least three times so far—could be increased again for a longer interval if China lifts the rare earths restrictions.

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