🇺🇸🇨🇳🇮🇩🇲🇾 Southeast Asia’s mineral balancing act

Southeast Asian rare earth exporters are not facing a simple choice between the US and China in critical mineral trade, according to a South China Morning Post analysis. The article argues that producers in Indonesia, Malaysia and other regional economies can use intensifying US-China competition to diversify partners and move into higher-value processing and manufacturing.

The backdrop is rising friction over rare earth supply chains. China tightened export controls on rare earth elements in April 2025 and later expanded licensing requirements to some foreign-made products containing Chinese-origin controlled materials or using specified Chinese rare earth technologies, although part of the October measures was suspended until November this year. At the same time, US-backed supply-chain initiatives are pushing East and Southeast Asian economies to reduce dependence on Chinese processing, even as regional trade links make a full binary split difficult.

The central issue for Southeast Asia is whether it can capture more of the value chain rather than remain a raw-material supplier. That would make mineral competition a route to industrial upgrading, not only a source of geopolitical pressure.

#Indonesia #Malaysia #China

@asianomics