As the Chinese government took issue with Japan Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's suggestion of "intervention in the event of a Taiwan contingency" and announced a broad plan to control exports, including rare earths, against Japan, a report said restrictions on rare earth exports to Japanese corporations have begun.
On the 8th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing two rare-earth exporters in China, reported that after China released on the 6th a ban on exports for dual use (military and civilian) for military purposes to Japan, it began restricting exports to Japanese corporations of medium heavy rare earths and magnets that contain them.
According to an anonymous source cited by the WSJ, reviews of export license applications for rare earths bound for Japan have already been halted. The export license restrictions are said to apply not only to Japanese defense-industry corporations but across Japanese industry as a whole.
Earlier, on the 6th, the very next day after the Korea-China summit, China banned exports of dual-use goods intended to aid Japanese military users and otherwise bolster Japan's military capabilities, and even flagged sanctions targeting third countries transferring Chinese dual-use items to Japan.
China's rare-earth sanctions are highly likely to extend into the private sector. On the 7th, China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper, also cited sources as saying the Chinese government is considering tightening reviews of export-control licenses for seven medium heavy rare earths designated as controlled items in April last year for exports to Japan.