MOFCOM Announcement No. 61 of 2025: decision to implement export controls on relevant rare-earth items located outside China

The extraterritorial measure of the October 2025 package. Foreign exporters must obtain a Chinese dual-use licence before shipping to third countries where the goods contain 0.1% or more by value of listed Chinese-origin rare-earth items, or were made abroad using Chinese rare-earth extraction, separation, metal-smelting, magnet-manufacturing or secondary-recovery technology, or are themselves of Chinese origin. Applications from foreign military users and from importers on the control and watch lists are refused in principle, as are WMD, terrorism and military end-uses; exports for research or production of 14nm-and-below logic chips or 256-layer-and-above memory, and for AI with potential military use, are decided case by case. Humanitarian shipments are exempt subject to post-export reporting. The controlled item lists are in an annex. Under paragraph 8, the limb covering Chinese-origin items (item 1(3)) applied from publication on 9 October 2025, while the two extraterritorial limbs (items 1(1) and 1(2)) were scheduled to apply from 1 December 2025. Before that date, Announcement No. 70 of 2025 suspended Announcement No. 61 from 7 November 2025 to 10 November 2026, so the extraterritorial limbs did not take effect on 1 December 2025.

The extraterritorial 0.1% rule mirrors the design of US export controls (a de minimis / foreign-direct-product logic) and marks a qualitative escalation from controlling exports of Chinese material to controlling foreign goods derived from it. Suspended by Announcement No. 70 of 2025 through 10 November 2026. The five additional rare earths added in the same October package came from a companion instrument, Announcement No. 57, not from this one.