Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, February 17th.

And this is your FT news briefing.

China is reconsidering how much rare earth minerals it sells to the world,

which could be a real problem for the US. And stock trading in Hong Kong is booming.

We'll tell you why. Plus, the latest investment that in the US is making its way across the

Atlantic, but European executives aren't listing their SPACs or Special Purpose Acquisition

companies in London will take a look at how Amsterdam is becoming the SPAC capital of Europe.

I'm Mark Filipino. Here's the news you need to start your day.

China is exploring the possibility of limiting how much rare earth minerals at exports.

These minerals are crucial for making not just smartphones and electric vehicles,

but also American F-35 fighter jets. Pentagon officials have already been concerned about their

reliance on China for these minerals to talk about why China is doing this and what it could

mean for the US. I'm joined by the FT's US China correspondent Dimitri Sevastopulo.

Dimitri, is this retaliation of some sort? Is it a show of strength to the Biden administration

or are there economic reasons here? What's going on?

I think it's really two things. The first is that China itself has growing demand for rare earths.

And so it's trying to control its rare earths industry and make sure that it maintains enough

supply for its growing industry. But I think on the other hand, it's looking for ways to punish

the US as Washington takes actions that makes it harder for Beijing to obtain technologies like

high end semiconductors. So it's really part of a kind of an emerging technology war that we're

starting to see between the US and China. And they have an amazing upper hand here Dimitri. They

control 80% of the supply of rare earth minerals. How did it get to be that way?

...