China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after the Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications.
The ratcheting up of trade restrictions comes as President-elect Donald Trump has been threatening to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries, potentially intensifyi
Gallium is a metal, the other 2 are metalloids (have both metallic and non-metallic properties). Anyway, they are semiconductor materials or used to create semiconductors (“doping” materials which means to introduce impurities to a often crystal-structure to influence the conductive properties) and you need them for basically everything in modern electronics. Widely used compounds are gallium arsenide (GaAs is used in many displays, LEDs and other light emitting stuff), Indium antimonide (InSb is often used in infrared cameras or imaging components), germanium is often used in solar panels.
I think Russia also exports them (which is why China has its eyes on Siberia where most of the natural resource wells for those materials are), so a full ban from China is bad news.
Medieval perspective: we trap lightning in magic rocks and make it think for us.