China and the United States should refrain from weaponising more aspects of their relationship, a Chinese scholar has urged, as the world’s two largest economies prepare to hold a fresh round of negotiations to cool down a recent flare-up in tensions.
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“It’s very important that the two sides need to have some kind of self-restraint,” said Da Wei, director of Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, at the Bund Summit in Shanghai on Thursday. “Stop trying to find new weapons against the other side.”
Most notably, Beijing announced a sweeping expansion of its export controls over rare earth elements – raw materials that are crucial to the production of a slew of hi-tech goods – with many seeing the move as mirroring Washington’s controls over chips and related technologies.
Rare earths are expected to be a major focus of the upcoming US-China negotiations in Malaysia, where Vice-Premier He Lifeng is scheduled to meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in the coming days.
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