As the US amps up its efforts to squeeze Chinese tech giant Huawei out of existence, China has begun countering with its own moves. The Chinese People's Liberation Army is dumping its Microsoft Windows licenses out of "hacking" fears (archived). With Anglophone firms breaking contracts and refusing to sell to Chinese firms, any last incentive of the Chinese side to continue paying is gone.

In a serious flashing of teeth, the Chinese are considering an export ban on rare earth metals to the United States (archived). Such a move would very well fuck US industries including the graftastic "alternative" power racket and force the US and their Australian collaborators to rapidly scale up their own rare earth mining and processing and make do with less. A stronger, not immediately likely though not unimaginable ban on the export of finished goods with rare earth components would of course mean the end of "consumer tech" in the United States.