China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Finance have imposed trade curbs on 56 US companies in direct retaliation for the Pentagon expanding its military blacklist of Chinese firms. Ten companies, including drone makers Red Cat Holdings and Teal Drones, radar firm IMSAR, and critically rare-earth miners MP Materials and USA Rare Earth, are now barred from receiving Chinese dual-use exports. A separate procurement ban blocks 46 US defense contractors — including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing Defense, and Anduril — from Chinese government buyers. The rare-earth targeting is particularly pointed: China controls ~90% of global rare-earth processing, and both MP Materials and USA Rare Earth are US government-backed efforts to reduce that dependency. The move fits a broader pattern of Beijing leveraging its dominance in critical materials as a counterweight to US chip export controls.
