I kind of doubt it in the same way China can simply stock up large quantities of US chips somewhere.
You can cast doubt in whatever way you feel comfortable. The truth of matter is that everything I could contemplate here in my post is not too difficult for other people to figure out, unless you refuse to face reality. Furthermore, I believe Beijing's contingency plan for the rare earth game must contain more advanced , fine-tunable tools to catch and then punish the entities that deliberately abuse the terms and conditions of using China's rare earth. China will no longer tolerate those people who profit from using China's rare earth to make weapons, then use these weapons to harm China. Beijing has refrained itself for too long to tolerate the US selling weapons to Taiwan. The time finally comes for Beijing to make sure that every single gram of rare earth shipped out from China will not end up in any weapon sold to Taiwan, no matter who the weapon manufacturers are.
Don't underestimate the firing power of Beijing's rare earthing gun. It will not only cripple America's chip make business, but more significantly, it will damage America's military industry, which is arguably the biggest employer, the largest money maker and the only surviving manufacture job maker for the US. Without China's rare earth, the full spectrum of US military industry, from aircraft carrier, to jet fighter, to infrared night vision goggle, to smart bomb, will go slowdown at least, completely standstill at worst, resulting millions American workers to be underemployed, or totally unemployed, strangling US most lucrative business of arms sales, and increasing US national deficit significantly.
The US media has tossed Trump's Huawei ban as a nuclear weapon to hold China's rise. It turns out
Trump's nuclear weapon is not only a bad joke for the US, but also a timely stimulant for China's high tech sector. Because of this ban, Huawei quickly released its first ever Ark OS as a response. When Huawei releases its Hongmeng OS later this fall, it will be the death knell for Microsoft and Google's business in China, if not their business all around the whole world. Only a fool trips over the same stone twice, right? Well, Google is that kind fool that fails twice in China all due to its own stupidity. It first voluntarily moved its server out from Beijing and relocated it in Hong gang because it hated China politically and overestimated its prowess, which caused its search engine business in Chinese. It now enthusiastically jumped out to ban Huawei from using its Android OS because it, again, hates China politically and overestimates its prowess, which will cause its smartphone business in Chinese market and beyond. You have yourself to blame, poor and stupid Google. Thank you, Trumpies, have done a great service to Made in China 2025.
Trump’s Huawei Threat Is the Nuclear Option to Halt China’s Rise
Huawei may be building an Ark (OS) as it prepares for life after Android
By an interesting contrast,
China's rare earth gun is a real game changer. It can be tailored as a sharp snip rifle as well as a massive destruction weapon, with the on-off switch controlled by Beijing. If China did pull the trigger of its rare earth gun because of escalation of the ongoing US-China trade war, Washington will immediately feel the pinch pain. Even if China didn't fire its rare earth gun due to deescalation of the trade war, I am confident China will still phase in some rare earth export control measures, such holding the importer accountable, establishing unreliable entities list and applying long-arm jurisdiction, quietly to knock out US's arms sale to Taiwan. It may take some time for Beijing to accomplish it quietly, but China now certainly has this kind capacity to clamp dead all inflow of high tech weapons into Taiwan by targeting the individual military contractors that use Chinese rare earth to make crucial components for weapons sold to Taiwan.
