China Takes Trade Fight to Europe, Targeting the Green Deal (1)

China’s decision to restrict critical mineral exports will hit key sectors in the European Union’s effort to decarbonize its economy, and demonstrates the limits of western aspirations to shift supply chains beyond the reach of policymakers in Beijing.

China is the largest global producer of the two minerals, gallium and germanium, which will be subject to export restrictions next month and that are crucial to the semiconductor, telecommunications and electric-vehicle industries. The EU gets 71% of its gallium from China and 45% of its germanium.

The move comes weeks after the EU unveiled a new economic security strategy, which ...