Xi’s rare earth card gives China $1.2 trillion leverage before Trump summit

China’s dominance of rare earths supply chains gives President Xi Jinping economic leverage worth $1.2 trillion in his planned summit meeting with US President Donald Trump in Beijing next month. Fresh analysis from Bloomberg Economics finds that around 4% of US GDP — totaling some $1.2 trillion — is derived from industries that use rare earths. While some US industries may be able to work around any supply disruption, most don’t have good substitutes and some would need to shut down in the event of any cut-off. “In some cases, rare earth inputs are ‘golden screws’: In the event of…