Beijing has flipped the script on Washington. After years of accusing the United States of policing global trade, China is now doing the same. In a move that stunned international markets, Beijing has ordered foreign firms to seek government approval before exporting any product that contains even traces of Chinese rare earth materials or uses Chinese technology.
The rule’s reach is massive. Even a smartphone maker in South Korea would now need Beijing’s clearance to sell devices in Australia if the phones contain China-originated materials. This rule gives China control over basically the entire global economy in the technology supply chain.
Borrowing From Washington’s Playbook
This new rule mirrors America’s own “foreign direct product” regulation, an instrument Washington used to choke China’s access to advanced technologies, even when those products were built overseas.
China is learning from the best. Beijing is copying Washington’s playbook because it saw firsthand how effectively US export controls could constrain its own economic development and political choices.
China began preparing for this moment long ago. The trade war that erupted under Donald Trump in 2018 had forced Beijing to build a toolkit for retaliation.
By 2020, China’s Ministry of Commerce unveiled its Unreliable Entity List, a mirror image of the US blacklist that bans certain foreign companies.
A year later, Beijing rolled out an anti-foreign sanctions law, empowering authorities to freeze assets and deny visas to individuals or firms deemed hostile to Chinese interests.
Chinese media called it a “toolkit against foreign sanctions”, with one commentary stating that Beijing would “hit back with the enemy’s methods”.
The new law is rooted in international principles that could help deter future escalation. China often borrows from foreign legal frameworks when drafting its own, an approach experts describe pragmatic rather than ideological.
The New Trade Retaliation Era
The latest confrontation ignited when President Trump returned to the White House and reignited his trade war with Beijing. His first salvo was a 10% tariff on Chinese fentanyl-related chemicals. Beijing hit back hard, adding PVH Group and biotech giant Illumina to its Unreliable Entity List, barring them from Chinese trade and investment.
Soon after, China tightened export controls on critical materials such as tungsten and bismuth. When Trump imposed another 10% tariff in March, Beijing escalated again, blacklisting more US firms and expanding restrictions to cover aerospace and defence companies.
Then came the dramatic “Liberation Day” tariffs in April. Trump unleashed a 125% tariff, and Beijing responded in kind, halting shipments of rare earth magnets and adding even more American companies to its blacklist.
The standoff could further spiral. What one side sees as reciprocity, the other might interpret as escalation.
Beijing’s message, however, is clear: America no longer has a monopoly on hardball trade politics. China has mastered the game, and it is now playing it by Washington’s own rules.
