International Relations

The Rare-Earth War The Rare-Earth War # —— China’s strategic confidence and resource sovereignty amid the reshaping of global geopolitics Preface # I studied geology at China University of Geosciences. As an undergraduate, as part of an academic activity organized by the university, I wrote a short paper titled “The Rare-Earth War.” Back then, the “war” was mostly a metaphor in the academic sense, an exploration of the relationship between resource competition and technological rivalry. Many years on, the world has shifted beyond recognition, and the scenarios once argued on paper are now playing out in reality. Taking up the pen again to rewrite “The Rare-Earth War” fills me with emotion.

The November 2025 issue of The Economist sketches a fractured global architecture: an escalating tech war between Washington and Beijing on one side, and defensive contraction alongside balance-sheet recession risks across major economies on the other. The Economist November 2025 cover - a deep dive into global economic trends Politics and Diplomacy: Strategic Decoupling Without Departure # US-China rivalry in semiconductors and infrastructure continues to escalate: new export controls meet supply-chain rerouting and localized component substitution. Beijing deepens bilateral ties across the Middle East and the Global South through energy and industrial infrastructure pacts. Domestic governance doubles down on preserving baseline stability amidst external containment. US-China “decoupling” is like a separation where nobody moves out: they shout about breaking up, but deep down they are still calculating chip allocations.