What Happened With U.S. tariffs weighing down its economy and hamstringing its major tech companies, China followed the veiled threats it issued earlier in the week to restrict the export of rare-earth elements with the revelation of another retaliatory option in its trade war with the United States. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on May 31 said China is creating a list of "unreliable entities" that would include foreign companies it considers damaging to the interests of Chinese firms. The list, akin to the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List that enabled the United States to blacklist Huawei Technologies , would allow Chinese authorities to target foreign companies, organizations and individuals that they find either don't obey market rules or violate contracts, or have blocked or cut off Chinese companies from suppliers for noncommercial reasons.