China's Ministry of State Security says it is cracking down on alleged smuggling of rare earths materials that it says threaten national security.

China’s exports of rare-earth products jumped in June, pointing to a potential pickup in magnet supplies after government-imposed curbs that proved to be Beijing’s most powerful weapon in its trade war with the Trump administration.

How, then, to explain the resilience of China’s exports in the turmoil of the global trade war? Some companies have been “front-loading”, or shipping extra goods to America, on fears that the truce will not hold and levies will increase further later.