US, China trade talks continue into night
World leaders and markets have been closely watching the trade talks between the two largest global economies, which have been taking place in London. US and Chinese officials have been seeking to strike a deal, and it is believed that easing export restrictions is topping the agenda.
The meeting stretched into the second day, and went into the night, on Tuesday. The US team is led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The Chinese delegation is headed by Vice Premier He Lifeng and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.
The negotiators paused for dinner, and reconvened at about 8 p.m. local time. Lutnick spoke to reporters before resuming. He said the discussions were going "really well," but could spill into a third day.
Lutnick said: "Everybody's got their head down working closely. I hope they end this evening, but if they need to be, we'll be here tomorrow."
Bessent later left the meeting to attend congressional testimony in Washington DC. He said the talks had been "productive," and were "ongoing."
In May, the two sides agreed to pause some tariffs for 90 days to allow more time for negotiations.
But since then, Washington has accused Beijing of delaying exports of rare earth metals, and has urged China to end the restrictions. It is believed that China has called on the US to scrap its curbs on semiconductor-related exports.
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Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
China-backed militia secures control of new rare earth mines in Myanmar
A Chinese-backed militia is protecting new rare earth mines in eastern Myanmar, according to four people familiar with the matter, as Beijing moves to secure control of the minerals it is wielding as a bargaining chip in its trade war with Washington. China has a near-monopoly over the processing of heavy rare earths into magnets that power critical goods like wind turbines, medical devices and electric vehicles. But Beijing is heavily reliant on Myanmar for the rare earth metals and oxides needed to produce them: the war-torn country was the source of nearly half those imports in the first four months of this year, Chinese customs data show. Beijing's access to fresh stockpiles of minerals like dysprosium and terbium has been throttled recently after a major mining belt in Myanmar's north was taken over by an armed group battling the Southeast Asian country's junta, which Beijing supports. Now, in the hillsides of Shan state in eastern Myanmar, Chinese miners are opening new deposits for extraction, according to two of the sources, both of whom work at one of the mines. At least 100 people are working day-to-night shifts excavating hillsides and extracting minerals using chemicals, the sources said. Two other residents of the area said they had witnessed trucks carrying material from the mines, between the towns of Mong Hsat and Mong Yun, toward the Chinese border some 200 kilometers away. Reuters identified some of the sites using imagery from commercial satellite providers Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies. Business records across Myanmar are poorly maintained and challenging to access, and the ownership of the mines could not be independently identified. The mines operate under the protection of the United Wa State Army, according to four sources, two of whom were able to identify the uniforms of the militia members. The UWSA, which is among the biggest armed groups in the Shan state, also controls one of the world's largest tin mines. It has long-standing commercial and military links with China, according to the U.S. Institute of Peace, a conflict resolution nonprofit. Details of the militia's role and the export route of the rare earths are reported by Reuters for the first time. A satellite image shows an overview of a West River rare earth mine in Myanmar on May 6. | Maxar Technologies / via REUTERS University of Manchester lecturer Patrick Meehan, who has closely studied Myanmar's rare earth industry and reviewed satellite imagery of the Shan mines, said the "mid-large size" sites appeared to be the first significant facilities in the country outside the Kachin region in the north. "There is a whole belt of rare earths that goes down through Kachin, through Shan, parts of Laos," he said. China's Ministry of Commerce, as well as the UWSA and the junta, did not respond to questions. Access to rare earths is increasingly important to Beijing, which tightened restrictions on its exports of metals and magnets after U.S. President Donald Trump resumed his trade war with China this year. While China appears to have recently approved more exports, and Trump has signaled progress in resolving the dispute, the move has upended global supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers and semiconductor companies. The price of terbium oxide has jumped by over 27% across the last six months, Shanghai Metals Market data show. Dysprosium oxide prices have fluctuated sharply, rising around 1% during the same period. Chinese influence A prominent circular clearing first appears in the forested hills of Shan state, some 30 km away from the Thai border, in April 2023, according to the satellite images reviewed by Reuters. By February 2025 — shortly after the Kachin mines suspended work — the site housed over a dozen leaching pools, which are ponds typically used to extract heavy rare earths, the images showed. Six kilometers away, across the Kok river, another forest clearing was captured in satellite imagery from May 2024. Within a year, it had transformed into a facility with 20 leaching pools. UWSA soldiers in a tin mine factory at Man Maw at ethnic Wa territory in northeast Myanmar in 2016. | REUTERS Minerals analyst David Merriman, who reviewed two of the Maxar images for Reuters, said the infrastructure at the Shan mines, as well as observable erosion levels to the topography, indicated that the facilities "have been producing for a little bit already." At least one of the mines is run by a Chinese company using Chinese-speaking managers, according to the two mine workers and two members of the Shan Human Rights Foundation, an advocacy group that identified the existence of the operations in a May report using satellite imagery. An office at one of the two sites also had a company logo written in Chinese characters, said one of the workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters. The use of Chinese operators in the Shan mines and transportation of the output to China mirrors a similar system in Kachin, where entire hillsides stand scarred by leaching pools. Chinese mining firms can produce heavy rare earth oxides in low-cost and loosely regulated Myanmar seven times cheaper than in other regions with similar deposits, said Neha Mukherjee of London-based Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. "Margins are huge." Beijing tightly controls the technology that allows for the efficient extraction of heavy rare earths, and she said that it would be difficult to operate a facility in Myanmar without Chinese assistance. A satellite image shows an overview of an East River rare earth mine in Myanmar on Feb. 7. | Maxar Technologies / via REUTERS The satellite imagery suggest the Shan mines are smaller than their Kachin counterparts, but they are likely to yield the same elements, according to Merriman, who serves as research director at consultancy Project Blue. "The Shan State deposits will have terbium and dysprosium in them, and they will be the main elements that (the miners) are targeting there," he said. Strategic tool The UWSA oversees a remote statelet the size of Belgium and, according to U.S. prosecutors, has long prospered from the drug trade. It has a long-standing ceasefire with the junta but still maintains a force of between 30,000 and 35,000 personnel, equipped with modern weaponry mainly sourced from China, according to Ye Myo Hein, a senior fellow at the Southeast Asia Peace Institute. "The UWSA functions as a key instrument for China to maintain strategic leverage along the Myanmar-China border and exert influence over other ethnic armed groups," he said. Some of those fighters are also closely monitoring the mining area, said SHRF member Leng Harn. "People cannot freely go in and out of the area without ID cards issued by UWSA." The Shan state has largely kept out of the protracted civil war, in which an assortment of armed groups are battling the junta. The fighting has also roiled the Kachin mining belt and pushed many Chinese operators to cease work. China has repeatedly said that it seeks stability in Myanmar, where it has significant investments. Beijing has intervened to halt fighting in some areas near its border. "The Wa have had now 35 years with no real conflict with the Myanmar military," said USIP's Myanmar country director Jason Towers. "Chinese companies and the Chinese government would see the Wa areas as being more stable than other parts of northern Burma." The bet on Shan's rare earths deposit could provide more leverage to China amid a global scramble for the critical minerals, said Benchmark's Mukherjee. "If there's so much disruption happening in Kachin, they would be looking for alternative sources," she said. "They want to keep the control of heavy rare earths in their hands. They use that as a strategic tool."
Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
Los Angeles residents reject Trump's claims of protest destruction
Just blocks from where a handful of die-hard protesters faced police in Los Angeles on Wednesday, residents were enjoying lunch in the sun and shrugging off claims by U.S. President Donald Trump that their city was burning. Six days after unrest began — prompting Trump to send soldiers into the streets, over the furious protests of local officials — life in the City of Angels was going on largely as normal. "Everything is hunky dory right here at Ground Zero," said Lynn Sturgis, a retired teacher protesting outside the federal complex that has been at the heart of the demonstrations in Downtown Los Angeles. "Our city is not at all on fire, it's not burning down, as our terrible leader is trying to tell you." The demonstrations began Friday as immigration authorities carried out raids on undocumented migrants in the sprawling metropolis. They have continued each day since — mostly peacefully, but tarnished by several spectacular incidents of violence, including torched cars and sporadic clashes with law enforcement. Trump has insisted that if he had not taken the extraordinary step of sending troops into Los Angeles over the weekend, "it would be burning to the ground right now." 'Manufactured' "Not at all ... this is very calm," said protester Ellen Carpenter, a retired federal worker who was demonstrating alongside Sturgis. "I lived in Washington, D.C., for a long time, so I was part of very large protests there, you know, millions and millions of people. This is a little wimpy by comparison." "This whole thing has been manufactured by the current administration," Sturgis said. Trump's promises to crack down on illegal immigration helped propel him back into the White House. He seized the opportunity presented by the Los Angeles rallies to order the California National Guard to deploy along with hundreds of Marines — a move state governor Gavin Newsom called "dictatorial." Tracey, a Los Angeles real estate agent who declined to give her last name, said the deployment was a "mistake." "I don't feel safe" with the military presence in the city, she said, even as she admitted that the protests had at times been "scary." Retired actor Thomas welcomed the troops, however. Not taking chances "As soon as it gets dark, thugs come out and cause trouble," the 69-year-old said downtown. It is the National Guard that has calmed things down, he argued — "bringing in more force. That's all they understand ... You have to step in and put your foot down." Restaurants in the streets surrounding the protest area were packed at lunchtime Wednesday. Workers cleaned graffiti sprayed by protesters on federal buildings as curious passers-by stopped to watch and snap photos. But there were some signs of apprehension as a handful of businesses were boarding up, worried that protests planned for the weekend could spiral into more violence. Trump will hold a military parade in Washington for his birthday on Saturday that coincides with planned protests in more cities across the country. "There's lots of expensive glass behind these boards that we're worried about, so we're not going to take any chances," said Chis Gonzalez, who was overseeing the boarding up of one downtown business. "Saturday, you know, seems like it's going to be a big protest. We're just anticipating the worst ... Not saying the protests are bad, but it's definitely scary when you have a business to protect."
Japan Times
3 hours ago
- Japan Times
Expanded Club World Cup set to have far-reaching impact on global soccer
FIFA's expanded Club World Cup, which gets underway in the United States this weekend, is a controversial addition to the global soccer calendar, and one that could have a far-reaching impact on the sport in the years to come. The 32-team tournament, with $1 billion dollars in prize money on offer, has been crammed into an already overloaded schedule leading to concerns it will push elite players to breaking point. It also threatens to upset the balance of domestic and continental club competitions, giving competing teams huge financial advantages over rivals. Consider the leading clubs in Europe, which is sending 12 teams including Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea. The chances are high that some will go deep into the Club World Cup, with a maximum of seven games to be played up to the July 13 final. The riches on offer are extraordinary, up to a possible $125 million for the top-performing European team. "The Club World Cup model affects the ecosystem of national leagues, especially in Europe," Javier Tebas, the president of Spain's La Liga, told radio station Cadena Cope. But while the likes of Liverpool and Barcelona will not be in the United States, and will thus miss out on the cash prizes, they will be able to give players a much-needed rest. "I think it will have a huge impact, and it will give Liverpool and Arsenal a huge advantage in the next season to not be there," said England manager Thomas Tuchel when asked about the consequences for the Premier League. Those clubs are already among the world's wealthiest without taking into account the sums being lavished by FIFA, but what about teams elsewhere? It will become harder for clubs in South Africa to challenge Mamelodi Sundowns once they leave with a guaranteed minimum of almost $10 million — the equivalent of the prize money for winning nine domestic titles. The amateurs of Auckland City were already dominate in Oceania before being handed $3.5 million just as an appearance fee. But if taking part will be perhaps the ultimate career highlight for their players, it just adds to the demands on those at top clubs. The introduction of the competition was met with opposition in Europe, and global players union FIFPro has warned that the wellbeing of many of its members is being threatened by the huge workload they face. Portugal midfielder Vitinha has played 52 matches for PSG this season, including the Champions League final win over Inter Milan on May 31. There have also been eight games for Portugal, including the Nations League final last week. Now he is off to the United States with PSG, with potentially no holiday until mid-July. The next French season is then due to start in mid-August, at the same time as the Premier League and La Liga. Then at the end of next season, Vitinha should be back in North America with Portugal at the expanded 48-team World Cup. Such demands on leading stars are why player unions in Europe last year raised the threat of strike action in a bid to cut down on the number of matches. "The problem is the accumulation of excessively long and intense seasons back to back," said Maheta Molango, chief executive of England's Professional Footballers' Association. "Players don't think just about the summer, they think about how they are not going to have a holiday for the foreseeable future." Meanwhile, domestic leagues do not see why they should change to accommodate FIFA's new tournament. "International organizations and especially FIFA have increased the number of matches they organize, so now we have a calendar that is beyond saturation," said Mathieu Moreuil of the Premier League. Other competitions are being devalued because the Club World Cup is taking place at the same time, like the CONCACAF Gold Cup, also being played in the United States. U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino is unable to call on leading players like Weston McKennie and Timothy Weah because they are at the Club World Cup with Juventus. "That is the circumstance that we have and we need to adapt," said Pochettino, a former PSG coach who may disagree with the view of Luis Enrique, currently in charge of the French side. "I think it is an incredible competition," he remarked looking ahead to the Club World Cup.
