With power move on rare earths, China plays both victim and bully

BEIJING – In Beijing’s version of the trade war, the

United States is the bully and China is a victim

, a rising power trying to protect the global economy while Washington unfairly hurls tariffs and technology bans its way.

That narrative is getting harder to square with the image of China that has emerged in recent days: that of an industrial juggernaut ready to use its chokehold over minerals crucial to modern manufacturing against any country, or company, that stands in its way.