Western governments intensified efforts to delink supply chains from China. Australia ordered six investors with links to Beijing to divest their holdings of a rare earths firm that is central to efforts by Washington and Canberra to loosen China’s stranglehold on the mining and processing of the minerals. And the EU is reportedly readying plans to require companies in the bloc to diversify their suppliers in order to reduce dependence on Chinese firms.

The US, meanwhile, is pressing ahead with a looming deadline banning defense companies from sourcing rare earths from China, despite industry protests that the sector is not yet ready to do so. A “global ‘land grab’ for rare earths is accelerating,” the Financial Times said.