Canada leads efforts to loosen China's grip on rare earths

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, claimed last week that China had "made a real mistake" by playing hardball with America over access to its rare earths.

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Was Bessent just trying to save face after an embarrassing climbdown to secure a new temporary trade deal with the People's Republic?

The economic importance of China's near monopoly of some key raw materials for the batteries, data centres, drones, missiles and mobile phones of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is recognised all over the world, and seen as a significant business and geopolitical risk.