On October 9, China announced that it would be imposing export controls on certain rare earth-related items that contain Chinese-origin components, effective immediately, saying the country will always safeguard its national security and international common security. But how is controlling rare earth exports related to security?

For some time, certain foreign organizations and individuals have been using rare earth items originating from China in sensitive fields such as military applications, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on an October 9 post on its website.

This behavior has caused significant damage or posed potential threats to China's national security and interests, adversely affected international peace and stability, and undermined global non-proliferation efforts, it said.

Therefore, to better defend world peace and regional stability, and to fulfill non-proliferation and other international obligations, China will employ export controls on related items according to the law in response to these concerns, according to the post.

In short, China won't allow anyone to use its rare earth items against it in terms of military, or against anyone else.

For those with safe, legitimate reasons to use China's rare earth items, the country has announced that eligible export license applications will receive approval. Exports intended for humanitarian purposes, such as emergency medical care, responses to public health incidents, and natural disaster relief, will be exempt from licensing requirements.

That is to say, China's export controls are not export bans.

MOFCOM has made it clear that the country had made a thorough assessment of the measures' possible impact on industrial and supply chains in advance and is certain that the related impact is minimal.

Additionally, China had notified the relevant countries and regions through bilateral export control dialogue mechanisms before announcing the measures.

"I want to emphasize that China's export controls are not export bans. All applications for compliant export for civil use can get approval, so that relevant businesses have no need to worry," said a MOFCOM spokesperson.