China escalated its trade fight with the United States on Monday, rolling out new restrictions aimed at dozens of American companies.
According to Wataru Suzuki of Nikkei Asia, Beijing added ten US firms to its export controls list, including MP Materials and Teal Drones. The same measures bar Chinese government purchases from 46 US companies, among them the defense-technology firm Anduril.
Export controls restrict what Chinese suppliers can sell to the named companies, while the procurement ban shuts those firms out of sales to China's government. Together, the two moves limit both what the targeted American businesses can buy from China and what they can sell into one of the world's largest markets.
The list reads like a who's who of strategically sensitive industries. MP Materials is a key US producer of rare earth elements, the minerals essential to everything from electric vehicles to military hardware. Teal Drones and Anduril both operate in the defense and unmanned-systems space, an area where the US and China increasingly compete.
Nikkei Asia reports the restrictions were announced as part of a broader package targeting American firms, signaling Beijing's willingness to use its own regulatory tools in response to mounting trade and technology tensions with Washington.
Why it matters: by going after companies tied to rare earths and defense technology, China is showing it can apply pressure on the same strategic sectors where the US has sought to limit Beijing's access — raising the stakes for businesses caught between the two governments.