U.S. Media Suddenly Discovers: While China Has Resumed Rare Earth Supplies, It Has Checkmated America Again! Only Loosened for Civilian Use, Military Use Remains Locked! And Applications Must Be Filled Out in Chinese! 美媒突然發現：中方雖已恢復稀土供應，但又狠狠將了美國一軍! 只鬆了民用口子，軍用繼續上鎖! 而且必須填表寫中文申請!

On November 12, The Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing has quietly attached an “electronic birth certificate” to every batch of rare earths shipped to the United States. Buyers, destinations, and intended uses must all be scanned and registered.

Upon hearing the news, the Pentagon held an emergency overnight meeting. F-35 fighter jets, Burke-class destroyers, and Virginia-class submarines all rely on this “industrial monosodium glutamate” to stay operational. Now, they are constrained by civilian-use restrictions, causing an uproar in the defense industry.

The story traces back to a secret 100-minute meeting in Busan on October 30. The U.S. sought to address its urgent needs first, such as allowing soybean shipments to dock, while China used rare earths as leverage, only loosening restrictions for civilian use while keeping military use under lock and key.

Three days after the meeting, the Ministry of Commerce launched a “Verified End User” whitelist. Silicon Valley magnet manufacturers and Detroit motor suppliers wanting to procure materials must first submit factory coordinates, downstream clients, and end-product blueprints. Audit teams conduct video inspections of factories, meticulously verifying equipment serial numbers frame by frame to prevent magnetic components from being diverted into missile actuators.

Boeing faced the toughest situation. With mixed military and civilian production lines, auditors demanded that military and civilian workshops be distinguished using different colored floor tiles. Cameras must stream footage to Beijing 24/7. If anyone in military uniform steps into the civilian zone, the entire production line is blacklisted and cut off from supplies.

Why such strict measures? The numbers speak for themselves: A single F-35 requires 417 kg of rare earths, including 23 kg of samarium-cobalt magnets for actuators—without them, the aircraft becomes unstable. A Burke-class destroyer needs 2,600 kg, and a Virginia-class submarine requires 4,600 kg for sonar systems, reactor shielding, and permanent magnet motors.

The U.S. only has the Mountain Pass mine in California, which can extract rare earth ores but lacks the capability to process them. The ores still need to be shipped to China for separation, traveling around the world before returning, increasing costs by 30%. Even more embarrassing, the Defense Department’s inventory reports indicate that current stockpiles can only sustain 3.6 months of high-intensity production. Without replenishment, the U.S. would have to pay premium prices to source from third countries. However, inquiries revealed that separation plants in Malaysia and Estonia are already partially owned by Chinese investors, with invoices settled directly in RMB.

Beijing’s strategy is shrewd: A complete cutoff would force the U.S. to invest hundreds of billions to build its own supply chain. If they succeed in a decade, China’s leverage would vanish. Instead, by allowing civilian use to continue, Silicon Valley can enjoy cheap magnetic components, and with R&D budgets saved, who would spend extra to mine rocks? At the same time, the bar for “smuggling” is raised—export quotas are allocated monthly, and customs data is compared with historical import volumes. A sudden 20% spike triggers alerts, requiring companies to provide explanations. If a single invoice doesn’t match, the entire shipment is sent back.

Attempting to “launder” materials is also difficult. In September, Beijing classified rare earth recycling technology as controlled, requiring licenses for recycling furnace blueprints, process parameters, and software codes—even USB drives are barred from leaving the country.

The next steps are predictable: U.S. defense giants face two choices. Either submit applications in Chinese, disclosing weapon serial numbers to Beijing at the risk of leaking secrets, or invest heavily to restart domestic refining. Meanwhile, Congress is busy debating land approvals, and environmental groups have already hung “radioactive wastewater” banners at proposed sites.

Time is on China’s side. In early November, China added 14 foreign companies to its unreliable entities list. Firms like Dedrone and TechInsights, which engage in reverse engineering for the defense industry, can no longer obtain a single gram of Chinese rare earths—their data interfaces have even been disconnected. Mexico, Japan, and South Korea, initially considering following suit with tariffs, backed off after seeing the situation. Without Chinese neodymium magnets, motor costs would immediately rise by 15%, prompting them to quietly delay tariff proposals by the end of November.

Beijing’s contingency plan is even more decisive: If the U.S. reinstates tariffs after the one-year suspension, the whitelist can be shut down with a click. Pre-loaded “military keywords” in the system would instantly freeze all related orders, more swiftly than Washington’s chip sanctions against Huawei. In such a scenario, F-35 production lines would slow to a crawl, defense contractors would scramble for second-hand materials in Australia and Canada, and an aircraft carrier’s construction could be delayed by six months, adding $20 billion to the budget on Congress’s table.

The stage is set, and the drums are beating. Rare earths, these small chess pieces, are gradually loosening the global defense industry board. The next move is in Washington’s hands: build a self-sufficient supply chain or lower their heads and fill out forms in Chinese? Which path do you think the U.S. will choose?

美媒突然發現：中方雖已恢復稀土供應，但又狠狠將了美國一軍! 只鬆了民用口子，軍用繼續上鎖! 而且必須填表寫中文申請!

11月12日《華爾街日報》爆料，北京悄悄給每一批運往美國的稀土貼上“電子出生證”，誰買、去哪、幹啥用，全得掃碼登記。

消息一出，五角大樓連夜開會，因為F-35、伯克艦、弗吉尼亞潛艇全都靠這批“工業味精”續命，現在卻被套上民用緊箍，軍工圈瞬間炸鍋 。

故事得從10月30日釜山那場一小時四十分鐘的密談說起。美方想先解燃眉之急，讓大豆船靠岸；中方則把稀土當籌碼，只鬆了民用口子，軍用繼續上鎖 。

會後第三天，商務部就上線“經認證終端用戶”白名單，想拿貨的硅谷磁材廠、底特律電機商，先得提交廠房坐標、下遊客戶、最終產品圖紙，審核組視頻驗廠，一幀一幀對設備編號，生怕你把磁片拐彎塞進導彈舵機 。

波音最慘，軍民混線，審核官要求把軍機車間和民航車間用不同顏色地磚區分，24小時攝像頭雲端回傳北京，一旦拍到穿軍服的人踏進綠區，立刻拉黑，整條線斷糧 。

為啥這麼狠？數字最直白：一架F-35要用掉417公斤稀土，23公斤釤鈷磁鋼做舵機，少了就飛不穩；一艘伯克艦2600公斤，弗吉尼亞潛艇4600公斤，聲吶、反應堆屏蔽層、永磁電機全靠它 。

美國本土只有加州芒廷帕斯礦，挖得出來卻煉不出來，礦石仍得運到中國分離，繞地球一圈再回去，成本飆三成 。更尷尬的是，國防儲備倉庫的報表寫着“現有庫存僅供3.6個月高強度生產”，補不上就得出高價去第三國掃貨，結果一詢價，馬來西亞、愛沙尼亞的分離廠早被中資入股，報價單直接人民幣結算 。

北京算盤打得精：徹底斷供，等於逼老美砸千億自建鏈，八年十載真讓他練成，卡脖子就失效；乾脆放民用一馬，讓硅谷繼續享受便宜磁片，研發預算省下來，誰還花冤枉錢去山裡挖石頭？同時把“走私”門檻抬高——出口總量按月配額，海關大數據比對往年進口量，突然暴增20%就觸發預警，企業得寫說明，一張發票對不上，整條櫃原地退回 。

想靠“洗料”也難過關，北京9月剛把稀土二次回收技術列入管制，回收爐圖紙、工藝參數、軟件代碼一律要許可證，連U盤都不給出境 。

接下來劇情不難猜：美國軍工巨頭只能兩條路，要麼乖乖遞中文申請表，把武器序列號報給北京，冒着泄密風險換原料；要麼砸錢重啟本土冶鍊，國會那幫老爺正吵着批地，環保團體已把“放射性廢水”橫幅掛到門口 。

時間站在中國這邊，11月初中方又追加14家外國企業進不可靠實體清單， Dedrone、TechInsights 這類做軍工逆向工程的直接拿不到一粒中國稀土，連數據接口都被拔網線 。墨西哥、日韓原本想跟風加稅，一看這陣勢，汽車廠先慫——沒有中國釹鐵硼，電機成本立刻漲15%，11月底的加稅議案悄悄推遲 。

北京留的後手更絕：一年暫停期結束，若美方再掀關稅，白名單可一鍵關閘，系統里預存的“軍用關鍵詞”瞬間生效，算法自動凍結所有關聯訂單，比當年華盛頓封華為芯片還乾脆 。到時候F-35生產線只能低速爬行，美軍火商排隊去澳洲、加拿大找二手料，一艘航母工期拖半年，預算自然往國會桌上再加兩百億 。

戲台搭好，鑼鼓已響，稀土這盤小棋子，正把全球軍工大棋盤一點點撬松。下一把牌在華盛頓手裡，是跟著自建產業鏈，還是低頭填表寫中文申請？你覺得老美會選哪條路？