As per Reuters, the Trump administration has two motives right now: strengthen its hand in trade talks with the Xi Jinping administration while forcing Beijing to relax its grip on rare earth minerals needed for a wide range of US industries, including vehicle manufacturing, chipmaking, and aerospace.

The US Department of Commerce is positioning itself to increase pressure on Beijing should the White House call upon it to do so.

Washington has already slowed export licensing for airplane parts bound for China in recent weeks. Trump administration officials have also expressed interest in issuing an export regulation that could make it easier to restrict landing gear and other aircraft parts to China.

Another draft version included a new licensing requirement on aviation hydraulic fluid shipped by US suppliers like ExxonMobil.

To prevent stockpiling, the Commerce Department has limited the number of parts licensed for shipment to China’s state-owned planemaker, COMAC.

In October 2025, Trump said the US could impose export controls on Boeing plane parts as part of Washington’s response to Chinese export limits on rare earth minerals.

However, things changed slightly since then.

In the recent summit on the American shores, US and Chinese officials met in New York and Washington to negotiate key economic issues between the two countries, including US access to Chinese rare earth minerals, agricultural trade, and issues around AI safety and governance.

The XI-Trump meet saw both sides extending a trade truce set to expire on November 10, giving negotiators until January 10, 2027, to tackle tougher issues regarding the bilateral exchange of goods and services.

While Trump’s tariff policies have affected nearly every industry since 2025, the aerospace sector has remained largely unscathed.

However, things changed last month, as the Republican, amid the ongoing tariff war with Canada, threatened not to allow Bombardier to sell its planes in the United States unless it starts manufacturing aircraft on the American shores.

However, he chose not to escalate things further as his party went against such harsh trade moves.

The aviation industry in general has been ⁠wrestling with shortages of parts and materials due to geopolitics.

Producers of thermal coating sprays used to protect jet engines, for example, continue to struggle with Chinese controls of rare earth materials that have led to delays.

Beijing has already sought several years’ worth of spare parts for 200 Boeing jets it agreed to purchase last spring, in what would be the US planemaker’s first major deal with Chinese carriers in nearly a decade.

However, the Trump administration reportedly views the parts as leverage to secure future concessions and has been reluctant to provide guarantees.

The American aerospace suppliers have established a sort of monopoly when it comes to China’s dependence for spares and parts for Boeing and Airbus jets operated by Chinese carriers, as well as COMAC, which eyes ramping up production of its own commercial jets.

However, the Trump administration has effectively utilized the monopoly as a bargaining chip.

In 2025, Washington imposed new export restrictions on aircraft products as the trade war with Beijing intensified.

The White House also suspended export licenses for GE Aerospace’s jet engines, Honeywell Aerospace navigation systems, and other parts ⁠for COMAC.

Even the manufacturers of hydraulic fluid used in Chinese airplanes came under the short-lived export license requirement.

Image Courtesy: White House

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