China news roundup / Nachrichten 2025-10-17/18

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bossel5.1 K3 days ago4 min read

Trump Says Threatened Tariffs on China ‘Not Sustainable’

"“I think we’re doing very well. I think we’re getting along with China,” Trump said"

--- Trump still has not understood what the CCP is all about. Moron.

"“I think that things have de-escalated. We hope that China will show the respect that we have shown them, and I am confident that President Trump, because of his relationship with President Xi, will be able to get things back on a good course,” Bessent said."

--- Trump is not the only one obviously. Where is that great de-escalation? Has China stopped the new rules about rare earths?

China can only fire the big gun of refined metals restrictions once

"But there are also risks for China in this behaviour, as the cannon of export curbs can effectively only be fired once in anger.
If China does eventually decide to cut off Western buyers from metals such as rare earths, lithium, cobalt, antimony, tungsten and others, it would cause massive disruption to Western supply chains.
But it would also prompt a rapid build out of new supply and processing facilities across the Western world.
The raw ores used to make many of these metals aren't necessarily rare or difficult to mine, and between them Western nations would have adequate supplies.
The challenge would be to build refining capacity, but this could be accomplished quickly in the event of a genuine emergency created by China ending its supply to Western buyers."

--- And this would pretty much be the only reason why China might temporarily walk back the restrictions.

Chinese Communist Party expels top generals in sweeping military crackdown

"The Chinese Communist Party has expelled nine top generals in one of its largest public crackdowns on the military in decades.
Nine men were suspected of serious financial crimes, a statement released by China's defence ministry said.
Most of them were three-star generals and part of the party's decision-making Central Committee. They have also been expelled from the military.
While the statement cast the expulsion as part of an anti-corruption drive, analysts say it could also be seen as a political purge"

--- Well, actually it's most likely that this is just another sign of Emperor Xi's growing paranoia.

Nexperia China unit asserts its independence as tensions with the Netherlands run high

"Days later, on October 4, China's commerce ministry blocked Nexperia from exporting chips from China.
On Saturday, Nexperia's China unit said on its official WeChat account that all of its employees continued to work under the instructions of the China unit. Its employees have the right to reject any "external instructions" not consented to by its Chinese legal representative, it added."

--- Obviously, this is just a mere business decision. Absolutely unrelated to any CCP pressure.