Tall grey ship-to-shore gantry cranes stand in a line over stacks of plain shipping containers in faded reds, blues and greys on a wet concrete quay at dawn, a low pink sun in a misty sky over calm water along the left, more cranes faint in the haze on the far shore.

The Truce

China Keeps New Rare-Earth Curbs Paused Until Jan. 10

China kept its October 2025 rare-earth, battery-material and synthetic-diamond export controls suspended until Jan. 10, 2027, the date to which Washington has paused its affiliates rule.

BEIJING, Nov. 9 — China will keep the rare-earth, battery-material and synthetic-diamond export controls it announced in October 2025 suspended until Jan. 10, 2027, the date to which Washington has put off a rule of its own. China’s Ministry of Commerce and its customs administration posted the decision at 4 p.m. in Beijing on Monday, 3 a.m. in New York. The one-year suspension it extends was to run until Nov. 10.

The announcement is one sentence long. From Nov. 11, 2026, to Jan. 10, 2027, it says, six announcements from 2025 “continue to be suspended,” in the paper’s translation. Reuters, reporting from Beijing, said the ministry “gave no other details.”The CountdownChina issued the six rules on Oct. 9, 2025. Four were to take effect on Nov. 8, 2025; on Nov. 7, 2025, China suspended all six until Nov. 10, 2026.

Between them, the six cover materials, machines and know-how. Four would add items to China’s export-control list: specified synthetic-diamond powder, crystals, wire saws and grinding wheels (No. 55); certain rare-earth production equipment and raw materials (No. 56); items related to five medium and heavy rare earths, holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium (No. 57); and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries of 300 watt-hours per kilogram or more, specified equipment for making rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, certain cathode materials and artificial-graphite anode material (No. 58). No. 62 would require a license to export technology for rare-earth mining, separation, smelting, magnet making and recycling.

No. 61, which reaches certain foreign-made items, would require companies outside China to get a Chinese license before exporting to destinations outside China certain rare-earth items made elsewhere, if listed Chinese-origin materials make up 0.1 percent or more of their value. Under it, China would review case by case applications for use in making advanced chips.The Chip ClauseNo. 61 sends to case-by-case review applications for the development or production of logic chips of 14 nanometers or less or memory chips of 256 layers or more, the equipment, test equipment and materials for making such chips, or the development of AI with potential military uses.

The Lists

China also kept on hold, for two months from Nov. 10, its measures against 27 American companies and groups, among them several drone makers. Sixteen were put on its export-control list on Apr. 4, 2025, barring sales of dual-use items to them; they include Sierra Nevada Corporation and Saronic Technologies. Eleven were put on its Unreliable Entity List the same day, barring them from China-related imports and exports and from new investment in China; they include Skydio, BRINC Drones, Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems and Insitu. Exporters may apply for licenses to sell to the first group, and Chinese companies for leave to trade with the second.

The ministry’s spokesperson said both steps were taken to carry out the “consensus” of the eighth round of China–U.S. economic and trade talks, in the paper’s translation. In a separate order, the ministry kept suspended for two months its countermeasures against five U.S. subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean, the South Korean shipbuilder.

The Same Date

Washington’s matching step is in Monday’s Federal Register, where the Commerce Department stays last year’s affiliates rule, which would extend Entity List restrictions to companies at least 50 percent owned by listed ones. “The suspension was set to end November 9, 2026. This final rule extends the suspension through January 10, 2027,” its summary says. Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security filed the stay on Nov. 5; it gives no reason for the date.

The truce has its strains. Xinhua reported that in a video call on the evening of Nov. 6, Beijing time, between Vice-Premier He Lifeng, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the trade representative, Jamieson Greer, China expressed “serious concern” about recent American trade restrictions on it, in the paper’s translation.

Reuters reported that Monday’s extension is part of a broader suspension of trade countermeasures and tariffs, announced as China negotiates with Washington over an enduring trade deal, and that President Trump is set to travel to Shenzhen later this month for an APEC leaders’ summit, where he is expected to meet President Xi Jinping. Unless the two sides agree on something longer, the suspensions of China’s six rules and of Washington’s affiliates rule both run out on Jan. 10.

Sources

  1. Ministry of Commerce of China and General Administration of Customs, “Announcement 2026 No. 58: decision to continue suspending MOFCOM–GAC Announcements 2025 Nos. 55, 56, 57 and 58 and MOFCOM Announcements 2025 Nos. 61 and 62 (in Chinese),” Nov. 9, 2026.
  2. Ministry of Commerce of China, “Spokesperson answers questions on adjusting the measures of the export-control control list (in Chinese),” Nov. 9, 2026.
  3. Ministry of Commerce of China, “Spokesperson answers questions on adjusting the measures of the Unreliable Entity List (in Chinese),” Nov. 9, 2026.
  4. Ministry of Commerce of China, “Order 2026 No. 4: decision to continue suspending countermeasures against five U.S. subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean for two months (in Chinese),” Nov. 9, 2026.
  5. Bureau of Industry and Security (Federal Register), “Extension of the Suspension of Expansion of End-User Controls for Affiliates of Certain Listed Entities (91 FR 70789, FR Doc. 2026-22793),” Nov. 9, 2026.
  6. Reuters, via ThePrint, “China extends suspension of new rare earth controls until January,” Nov. 9, 2026.
  7. Xinhua, via the Ministry of Commerce of China, “He Lifeng holds video call with U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent and Trade Representative Greer (in Chinese),” Nov. 7, 2026.
  8. Ministry of Commerce of China and General Administration of Customs, “Announcement 2025 No. 55: export controls on superhard-material items (in Chinese),” Oct. 9, 2025.
  9. Ministry of Commerce of China and General Administration of Customs, “Announcement 2025 No. 56: export controls on certain rare-earth equipment and raw and auxiliary materials (in Chinese),” Oct. 9, 2025.
  10. Ministry of Commerce of China and General Administration of Customs, “Announcement 2025 No. 57: export controls on certain medium and heavy rare-earth items (in Chinese),” Oct. 9, 2025.
  11. Ministry of Commerce of China and General Administration of Customs, “Announcement 2025 No. 58: export controls on lithium-battery and artificial-graphite anode material items (in Chinese),” Oct. 9, 2025.
  12. Ministry of Commerce of China, “Announcement 2025 No. 61: export controls on relevant rare-earth items abroad (in Chinese),” Oct. 9, 2025.
  13. Ministry of Commerce of China, “Announcement 2025 No. 62: export controls on rare-earth-related technology (in Chinese),” Oct. 9, 2025.
  14. Ministry of Commerce of China and General Administration of Customs, “Announcement 2025 No. 70: decision to suspend Announcements 2025 Nos. 55, 56, 57, 58, 61 and 62 (in Chinese),” Nov. 7, 2025.
  15. Ministry of Commerce of China, “Announcement 2025 No. 21: 16 U.S. entities added to the export-control control list (in Chinese),” Apr. 4, 2025.
  16. Unreliable Entity List Working Mechanism (Ministry of Commerce of China), “Announcement 2025 No. 7: 11 U.S. companies added to the Unreliable Entity List (in Chinese),” Apr. 4, 2025.
  17. Bureau of Industry and Security (Federal Register), “Expansion of End-User Controls To Cover Affiliates of Certain Listed Entities (90 FR 47201),” Sept. 30, 2025.
  18. Skydio, “Media resources.”
  19. BRINC, “BRINC announces new Seattle factory and launch of next-generation 911 response drone,” March 24, 2026.
  20. Insitu, “About Insitu.”
  21. Hanwha, “Hanwha Ocean.”