In a hulking gray building just east of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, a small team in China's Ministry of Commerce is deciding the fate of the global auto industry, one rare earth magnet export permit at a time.
China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets — a crucial component in electric vehicle motors — and it added them to an export control list in April as part of its trade war with the United States, forcing all exporters to apply to Beijing for licenses.
It falls to the Bureau of Industrial Security and Import and Export Control — which is part of China's Ministry of Commerce — to review export permits for the rare earth magnets, which are vital for car motors, wind turbines and even U.S. F-35 fighter jets.
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