Under new rules China introduced in April and dramatically tightened in October, foreign companies must submit granular, confidential data to obtain a six-month import license for rare earth minerals.
The forms are extraordinarily detailed, according to people who have seen them, requesting product photos showing mineral placement, manufacturing diagrams and customer details. In some cases, the application requests annual production data for the last three years and projected data for the next three years.
Hoping to speed license approvals, the German embassy in Beijing gave China a priority list. This “white list” did help bigger firms get sign offs, but it left behind smaller companies without lobbying operations.
“With all the information they are in the process of collecting, the Chinese authorities are likely also getting a picture of defense industrial bases in NATO countries and how intertwined they are with each other,” said MERICS’ Arcesati.
the German government has been slow to act — as usual with all things