Strategists have long feared that China’s quest for natural resources would lead to ever-higher prices, a breakdown in trade and perhaps even wars. But a stunning rebuke to Chinese manipulation last week at the World Trade Organization is a sign that the global system is far more resilient than the worriers have claimed. The ruling made public on March 26 centered on the Chinese strategy of restricting exports of raw materials—most notably rare earth elements such as cerium and neodymium used in high-tech defense and energy systems—to give Chinese companies a leg up and inflict damage on other resource consumers. The WTO panel declared the restrictions illegal and opened the door to retaliatory tariffs from the United States, Japan and others. Analysts from elite universities to the Pentagon have worried that China is “locking up” commodities from crude oil to copper, building a mercantilist alternative to the system of […]