China Has Another Trade Weapon Waiting for America
It’s not just rare earths the US has to worry about. It’s pharmaceuticals, too.
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The latest chapter, or perhaps page, in the annals of the US-China trade war concluded this week with a one-year truce reached by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Whether the newfound accord will last, against the backdrop of intense great-power competition, is tough to predict.
But whenever the next flare-up does occur, Beijing will still have a weapon it has yet to deploy in all of the rounds of escalation and de-escalation to date. Besides controls over the vital rare-earth supply chain and the suspension of US agriculture purchases, China has in its quiver the ability to deprive Americans of vital pharmaceuticals.