Ep 10 - Trivium Markets and Politics - China flexes its export control muscles, puts Nvidia in the hotseat

The Trivium China Podcast

China’s approach to economic retaliation against the US continues to evolve, with the past 10 days seeing a new round of critical mineral export controls and the launch of an anti-monopoly investigation into Nvidia.

This week Trivium China Co-founder Andrew Polk is joined by Trivium’s Head of Critical Minerals and Supply Chain Research Cory Combs to go through all the latest.

The gents discuss:

• The details of China’s latest export controls on critical minerals
• China’s evolving approach to economic retaliation against the US
• Why we all should have seen this coming
• The most likely minerals next on China’s export control list
• China’s new long-arm jurisdiction approach to enforcement of export controls
• The anti-monopoly investigation into Nvidia – and the likely options moving forward

One key takeaway: The timing of these most recent moves by China – as the Biden administration winds down and the Trump administration gears up – seems particularly canny.

• Biden can do little to respond.
• And Trump has no incentive to respond, at least not at this point.

The upshot: China appears to be signaling to Trump that it is better prepared to fight back on the trade and tech war fronts this time around.

• So your move, Mr. Trump!