The confrontation between China and the United States in the international economic and trade field has been gradually evolving into a much wider one between China and the Western world at large. In the escalating technological confrontation between China and the United States, Beijing has chosen export controls on gallium and germanium as a means of retaliation against U.S. export controls on advanced chips to China. However, whether it is oil, gas, gallium, germanium, or rare earths, export controls on these natural resources can only have a visible effect in the short term and may not achieve the political objectives intended by the sanctioners. With continued advances in resource extraction technology, the ongoing exploration of alternative resources, and the increasingly important role played by the price adjustment mechanisms, the export control on natural resources may not produce a sanctionary effect of stranglehold in the long run. After the Group of Seven (G-7) Hiroshima Summit, the confrontation landscape between China and the West has been further established, and the geopolitics in the world has entered a new era in which global economic growth faces greater uncertainty. Only multilateralism and global cooperation can promote the long-term prosperity of the world economy.
