China’s export control unit begins biggest hiring spree since 2022

SINGAPORE - China’s Commerce Ministry is on its biggest public hiring spree this decade, bolstering the unit overseeing rare-earth curbs even as it pauses sweeping measures in a trade truce with the United States.

The Bureau of Industrial Security and Export and Import Controls is recruiting at least five bureaucrats for 2026, according to an official job notice. That’s the most headcount it’s added since the ministry began publishing breakdowns of postings in 2022, according to a tally by Bloomberg News. 

The ministry is recruiting 60 new officials overall, making it one of China’s top hiring agencies for 2026, according to the notice. 

It’s increasingly rare for central government departments to add significant headcount as China is on a downsizing mission to make its vast bureaucracy more efficient. The Commerce Ministry has been dogged by staffing shortages since Beijing imposed new curbs on rare earths, with foreign firms criticizing a backlog in license approvals for magnets needed to make everything from cars to smartphones and military drones. 

China’s Commerce Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Export controls have emerged in 2025 as China’s most powerful trade weapons. While Beijing agreed to a one-year pause on its latest curbs during a summit last week between US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping, its previous licensing system on rare earths remains in place. The hiring push – announced days before the leaders’ meeting – shows China does not plan to back away from developing a framework for its best leverage against US tariffs.

“It absolutely makes sense to me that they’re having to hire,” said associate director Cory Combs at consultancy Trivium China. “Even with the postponement of the Oct 9 controls, the whole apparatus remains on an expansionary trajectory.”

Mr Trump signed into effect on Nov 4 an extension of tariff relief on China, citing a commitment from Beijing to “postpone and effectively eliminate” the “current and proposed coercive global export controls on rare earth elements and other critical minerals”.

Still, the ceasefire could collapse if the US crosses China’s red lines on supporting self-ruled Taiwan, for example, or if Beijing’s magnet supply doesn’t meet Washington’s expectations. Under now-suspended measures, the Commerce Ministry would require permits for exports anywhere in the world containing even small amounts of rare earths, generating piles of paperwork.

After China imposed controls on seven rare earths in April, the export control bureau doubled its headcount to about 60, Reuters reported in June citing two people familiar with the matter. Those were likely civil servants loaned from lower-level government units on a temporary basis, a practice known as jiediao. 

Chinese government agencies typically only recruit permanent staff once per year, after nationwide civil service examinations. 

Among the five new commerce openings, the ministry is seeking one Japan and one South Korea expert to conduct research and diplomacy. Those nations are dependent on Chinese rare earths and have expressed alarm about Beijing’s attempts to throttle global supply. 

During Mr Trump’s three-nation trip through Asia last week, Japan was among several countries that vowed to deepen cooperation with the US on critical minerals. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN in an interview this week that the US plans to go at “warp speed for the next one, two years” to break its reliance on China. 

“We’re going to get out from under the sword that the Chinese have over us,” he said. “This time, we have rallied the allies.” BLOOMBERG