Remember a few years back when the US had a trade war with China, and it was harder and more expensive to get everything from washing machines to solar panels to soybeans?

Well, that war never ended, and this week a new front opened up. China started restricting the export of two rare earth materials called gallium and germanium.

Now these metals that China has are materials used in semiconductor chips.

Last fall, the US said it would stop selling advanced semiconductor chips to China, and it would stop selling the technology to make those chips.

These chips are in everything, including artificial intelligence.

We're going to cut off this entire ecosystem and kill China's ability to create advanced technology.

Coming up on today explained a war over chips, the little thing that's in everything.

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For most of us, this week's blockade on germanium and gallium went unnoticed.

There are no gallium shortages at the Trader Joe's.

But Alex W. Palmer saw this coming. Alex is a contributing writer at the New York Times magazine, and he recently wrote a piece called An Act of War.

Inside America's Silicon Blockade against China.

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