US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China “made a huge mistake” when it tried to use its dominance of rare earths as a weapon.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, Scott said the two governments had reached some sort of balance before China decided to “shoot in the gun” by threatening to cut off exports of critical minerals.
That’s crossing the line, he warned. He said China cannot continue to use rare earths as a means of pressure, especially now that it has shown its hand.
Scott said the U.S. sees this move as a huge miscalculation, noting that China has exposed itself by showing a willingness to use rare earths as a counterattack.
Washington is already looking for alternatives, and this new escalation will only accelerate matters. Scott said the United States and its partners can no longer afford to assume these minerals are freely available.
Scott, a soybean farmer, said he also felt the pain.
Scott also took some time to talk about the other front in this trade war: soybeans. In an interview with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, Scott said, “I’m actually a soybean farmer…I’ve felt this pain too.”
China has effectively blocked imports of U.S. soybeans for months, and Mr. Scott just happens to be one of the people affected. In a sense. He owns farmland in North Dakota, where he grows soybeans and corn.
His financial disclosures show his holdings are worth between $5 million and $25 million, and he generates between $100,000 and $1 million annually.
But let’s not pretend that Scott is dependent on those crops. According to Forbes, his net worth is approximately $600 million.
So when China, once the U.S.’s biggest buyer, imposed high tariffs on soybeans in May after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on imports from China, the pain was not evenly distributed.
Since the tariffs, China has not bought any U.S. soybeans. This is felt by ordinary farmers who depend on the sale of their crops. Scott said the embargo hurts, but he’s actually better able to take it than most.
Still, the fact that the Treasury Secretary is directly affected by trade tensions with China adds an odd twist.
TikTok deal moves forward following President Trump’s order
In addition to rare earths and soybeans, Scott said deals with TikTok are finally starting to take off. In an interview with Fox Business, he confirmed that both sides had finalized the agreement in Kuala Lumpur and were waiting for the deal to progress.
“We expect the situation to evolve in the coming weeks and months, and ultimately a solution will be found,” he said.
The battle over TikTok has been going on for more than a year and a half. In 2024, Congress passed a law ordering TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to divest the app’s U.S. assets by January 2025.
President Trump followed this up with an executive order on September 25 stating that the planned sale met the national security requirements set out in the law. The clock is ticking. Buyers had 120 days to close the deal, and President Trump extended the final deadline to January 20, 2026.
Under the new plan, ByteDance would own less than 20% of TikTok’s US shares and only get one of the seven seats on the new board of directors. The remaining six will be Americans.
The app’s algorithms, used by 170 million Americans, will be retrained and monitored by U.S. cybersecurity partners, and full control will be transferred to the new joint venture.
Still, Republican John Moolener, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, remains unconvinced. He said the algorithm licensing agreement that is part of the deal “will raise serious concerns.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce said it intended to “appropriately handle” the issue and would work with the United States to resolve remaining issues. But Washington seems determined.
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