Tariff wars. Bessent: China aims a bazooka at global industry. We won't allow this

By announcing export controls on rare earth metals, China has aimed a bazooka at supply chains and the industrial base around the world, but we will not let them do that and we will not be controlled by them, US Finance Minister Scott Bessent said on Monday.

Bessent commented in this way on the decision of the Chinese authorities last week and the announcement of a radical tightening of restrictions on the export of critical minerals. The head of the Ministry of Finance expressed surprise at the decision and admitted that he did not know why Beijing had decided to take such an aggressive step at this time.

– It's China versus the world. They have aimed a bazooka at the supply chains and industrial base of the entire free world, and we will not tolerate that,” Bessent said. – China is a command-and-control economy. They will neither order us nor control us, he declared. The minister stated that communication channels on this matter have been opened and that he plans meetings both this week as part of the autumn talks of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as well as in Asia before the potential Trump-Xi summit in South Korea. He also noted that America has “plenty of direct, brutal means” at its disposal to respond to the Chinese move, as well as broad global support from both Europe and India and allies in Asia.

– Over the summer, we were forced to take 12 countermeasures against China, which was severely affected, from natural resources used to produce plastics to jet engines and their parts. I think they had to ground a significant part of their civilian fleet, Bessent noted.

However, the minister emphasized that the United States did not want to use such measures and recalled that the retaliatory steps announced by Donald Trump, including controls on software exports and 100 percent customs duties, are not scheduled to come into effect until November 1, which still gives time to solve the problems.

Trump himself, after reacting to the Chinese move full of outrage and shock, tried on Sunday to calm the mood and downplay the seriousness of the dispute. He said that China made its decisions because its leader Xi Jinping was having a “bad day.” He argued that he would be able to resolve the dispute.

“Don't worry about China, everything will be fine! The highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn't want a crisis for his country, neither do I. The US wants to help China, not hurt it!!!” – wrote the US president on Truth Social.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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