https://archive.ph/0T4nC#selection-555.0-555.58

'Beijing invoked a nuclear option it hadn’t dared to in the first term: Last April it shut down most exports of rare earths, mineral deposits essential for high-tech applications, threatening U.S. production of everything from electric vehicles to missiles, jet fighters, data centers and submarines. China mostly controls the refining, separation and global export of rare earths. Beijing’s willingness to sever such a critical trade tie caught Trump’s team off guard, according to administration officials.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others appealed to Trump to walk back the tariffs and dial down the trade war, to get the minerals flowing again, according to officials familiar with the matter. 

Against a president who prides himself on his dealmaking, China often appears to be prevailing.

China “stood up to President Trump with the rare earths, and the U.S. backed down,” said Anja Manuel, a former State Department official working on Asia policy in the George W. Bush administration who now advises companies on geopolitics. “It is really mutual damage control now.”

The war with Iran has further weakened the U.S. negotiating position with Beijing, national security officials say, with Trump deciding amid the sprawling conflict to delay his first of what was to be four meetings with Xi this year. The postponement of the April meeting gives Trump’s aides and cabinet secretaries, who were behind in preparations, more time but also diminishes expectations for additional meetings or substantive concessions from Beijing, said people familiar with the plans.'