China Justifies Gallium, Germanium Export Controls

China’s recently imposed export controls on gallium and germanium (see 2307050018) -- two metals used to produce semiconductors -- were for legitimate national security reasons, Beijing said this week, rebuking comments from U.S. officials and lawmakers who have said the restrictions have no justification (see 2307060053). In an Aug. 9 post on Chinese social media site Weixin, the National Security Ministry said the country's national security concerns stem from an incident in 2009, when an employee working for a global mining company in China tried to access “detailed technical analysis of dozens of Chinese iron and steel enterprises and accurate parameters of each production process.”

It was “precisely because of the leakage of these core data that it has caused huge economic losses to the country,” the ministry said, according to an unofficial translation. “The successful cracking of the case effectively safeguarded the security of national resources and avoided greater losses.” China added that it has since sought to place “export controls on important mineral resources.”

The July restrictions on gallium and germanium were “consistent and completely reasonable and legal,” China said. Both metals “have obvious dual-use properties for military and civilian use,” it added, and the “export controls are implemented in accordance with the law to ensure that they are used for legal purposes in order to maintain national security and better fulfill international obligations."