China REE / Gallium-Germanium Export Controls
Beijing's mineral-export weapon in the chip war
China controls the vast majority of global gallium, germanium and rare-earth processing, and in 2025 escalated licensing and outright restrictions on these and antimony/graphite as retaliation against US chip controls. This is China's primary upstream leverage over the entire Western AI-hardware supply chain, from GaN power to magnets and optics.
Levers
Gallium, germanium, rare earths, antimony, graphite
How it fits the stack
China REE / Gallium-Germanium Export Controls with what it depends on (above) and what it feeds (below). The figure renders as a crawlable diagram and upgrades to an interactive 3D graph as it scrolls into view.
China REE / Gallium-Germanium Export Controls in the AI stack. China REE / Gallium-Germanium Export Controls with its immediate upstream dependencies (top) and downstream dependents (bottom) in the AI value chain. Hover a node in 3D, or read the full relationships below.