Seeing India as a possible ally against China on the issue of rare earths, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has slammed Beijing, accusing Xi Jinping’s regime of trying to harm with new export controls on minerals used to make magnets crucial to auto, electronic and defence industries.
“This is China versus the world,” said Bessent, who has in the past been acerbic towards both India and China for their purchase of Russian oil despite the war in Ukraine.
In an interview with the channel Fox Business, Bessent said on Monday: “They (China) have pointed a bazooka at the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world. And, you know, we’re not going to have it.”
Saying the US will assert its sovereignty “in various ways”, he added, “China is a command-and-control economy. They are neither going to command nor control us.”
“We have already been in touch with the allies,” he further said, “We will be meeting with them this week, and I expect that we will get substantial global support — from the Europeans, from the Indians, from the democracies in Asia.” He did not expand on what he meant by support.
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His comments with regards to China — “they want to pull everybody else down with them” — come after President Donald Trump reacted with announcing 100% additional tariffs on Beijing over its imposition of export controls on rare earths.
China is the world’s leading producer of the minerals.
“They are in the middle of a recession/depression, and they are trying to export their way out of it,” Bessent told the Financial Times in another interview.
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Trump has also threatened to cancel a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit starting later in October.
The new tension comes after both countries had de-escalated the tariff war and remained in talks for a deal.
China has accused the US of double standards on tariffs. At this, Trump said he wants to “help China, not hurt it”. Beijing has been aggressive nonetheless, saying on Tuesday that it’s ready to “fight to the end” the tariff war.
India, which faces massive US tariffs at 50%, finds itself in the middle of this new battle, with the US expecting it to ally with it even when PM Narendra Modi recently made an eastward move by visiting China to reset ties affected badly by border clashes about five years ago.
The US, including Trump and Bessent, have given mixed signals to India. Trump has said “tariffs” is his favourite word, but continues to use “good friend” and “great leader” for PM Modi.
At the Gaza peace summit in Egypt on Monday, which Modi chose to skip, Trump showed some more bonhomie towards Pakistan, but inserted some praise for Modi too in his comments.
(with AFP inputs)
