Kingdom Report
www.kingdomvision.co.za
Week of 18 October 2025
Trade Wars and Prophetic Signs of the Times
Good news for fellow amillenialists who believe over time things are getting better because God's will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. Recently Pres. Trump got an Isaiah 2:4 rebuke from the Lord Jesus via Pres. Xi of China. The trade war is a prophetic sign of the times.
The prophet Isaiah, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us a glorious vision of the effects we can expect from the Kingdom of God manifesting on earth over the span of time. This vision is not of a world order built on military might, but on divine justice: I refer to Isaiah 2:4...
"He shall judge between the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
This prophecy is a foundational description of the Kingdom of God on earth. It is a divine mandate for radical disarmament, through the active judgment and rule of the Messiah. The "swords" and "spears"—the manufactures of weapons and death—are not merely destroyed; they are re-forged. They are transformed into "plowshares" and "pruning hooks"—an economy that is purposed to useful wealth creation instead of an economy producing and exporting weapons and war.
Isaiah says the Lord will judge between nations and rebuke those nations who are promoting weapons production and war. For evangelicals who are looking for Jesus to do this one day from Jerusalem in the Millennium this is not the time for this scripture to be fulfilled. For we amillenialists who believe Jesus is ruling now from the throne of heaven is now judging between nations and rebuking nations who persist in war, weapons and exporting war and weapons.
Recently America changed its Department of Defence to the Department of War. A fist pointing to heaven and God's command to nations to get out of war and weeapons. America is the world's largest exporter of weapons and recently the supplier of 2000 lb bombs to Israel to destroy Gaza turning it into the world's largest child cemetery. And of course financing the Israeli war machine and the war in Ukraine with money and weapons with more than a million young men dead and Iraq more than a million dead and Syria and Libya. From more than 750 military bases around the world.
The last weeks the rebuke from heaven came. In the form of a trade war with China that America will lose and China will win.
In a major escalation of the U.S.-China trade and technology conflict, Beijing announced sweeping new export controls on rare earth minerals (REMs) and related technologies on October 9, 2025. This move is a direct response to recent U.S. sanctions aimed at China's semiconductor industry. The new restrictions, which explicitly target military and high-tech applications, pose a direct and significant threat to the U.S. defense industrial base and its high-technology manufacturing sector.
China’s new rules are unprecedented in their scope and targeting. For the first time, Beijing has mirrored the U.S. "foreign direct product rule" (FDPR). This gives China extraterritorial power to block the sale of foreign-made products (e.g., a magnet made in Japan or Germany) if it contains even 0.1% of Chinese-origin rare earth materials or was produced using Chinese technology.
Crucially, the new policy mandates a "presumptive denial" for export licenses intended for any military end-user or defense contractor, directly targeting the U.S. defense industry. The U.S. military is critically dependent on Chinese-processed rare earths, particularly the neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) alloy used in powerful permanent magnets. These magnets are essential for any system requiring a compact, powerful motor, sensor, or guidance system.
China’s Market Dominance:
Mining: ~70% of global REE mining.
Processing & Refining: ~90% of global REE processing.14
Magnet Manufacturing: ~93% of global high-performance magnet production.
Data from U.S. government reports and defense analytics firms illustrate the scale of this vulnerability:
F-35 Lightning II Fighter Jet: Requires over 900 pounds of rare earth materials for its electric motor, sensors, radar, and electronic warfare systems.
Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) Destroyer: Uses approximately 5,200 pounds of REEs, primarily in its advanced SPY-6 radar and sonar systems.
Virginia-class Submarine: Contains over 9,200 pounds of REEs for its guidance systems, sensors, and quiet electric propulsion.
A 2025 Govini report concluded that 78% of all U.S. military weapon systems are vulnerable to this supply chain disruption, affecting over 80,000 components across nearly 1,900 different systems. The U.S. Navy is the most exposed branch, with an estimated 91.6% of its systems reliant on these materials.
Without a stable supply of these magnets and minerals, the U.S. faces the prospect of production delays, crippling cost increases, and the inability to manufacture its most advanced defense platforms.
Crippling Blow to High-Tech Manufacturing
The new Chinese controls are equally damaging to the U.S. high-tech civilian economy. The restrictions explicitly target minerals and technologies used in the most advanced sectors.
Semiconductors: The export controls name specific rare earths (like scandium and yttrium) used in semiconductor manufacturing, including in the lasers for lithography, as well as in the testing and fabrication equipment. This is a direct counter-sanction designed to inflict pain on the very industry the U.S. seeks to protect.
Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Wind Turbines: The high-performance magnets in EV motors and wind turbine generators are the single largest market for rare earths. A disruption here directly undermines U.S. green energy and automotive manufacturing goals.
Consumer Electronics: Every laptop, smartphone, and hard drive uses small rare earth magnets for speakers, actuators, and motors.
Medical Technology: Advanced medical diagnostic tools, such as MRI machines and X-ray systems, rely heavily on powerful permanent magnets.
Here is the critical issue:
There are no other manufacturers of refined rare earths from which American or European companies can buy these critical supply chain components.
Mining rare earths does not help you. Everyone sends thei8r raw minerals to be refined in China who then manufactures the key supply components. It is extremely difficult to refine these minerals to the extreme purity levels needed for high tech manufacturing.
America does not have the skilled scientists and artisans or specialized equipment needed to start manufacturing. The lead time is a minimum 7 years to develop the skills and processing equipment.
China is now setting up a world wide licensing system for companies whereby you must prove that nothing they provide will find its way into weapons manufacture. Meaning if Boeing needs RAW materials from China which they urgently need for aircraft manufacture they must forget about weapons manufacture for the Pentagon.
For China war is not big business as it is for America. Wars disrupt trade and kills customers. That is why China says no more weapons (except for their close allies like Russia) - China spent over a trillion dollars building international investments in trade infrastructure through the Belt and Road policy.
China's policy now is to strangle America's arms industry. And America's technology sector.
Their next step is to de-dollarize the world trade system.
Recently China told Australia they will only buy iron ore from them and pay in Yuan. Thye are no longer paying in dollars. Australia tried to fight back but backed down.
India told Russia they will pay for their large oil imports in Yuan and not dollars. Russia happily agreed.
This is what it looks like when God rebukes a nation. The end of the American war making capability is in sight. The end of the US dollar is in sight.
One way for the Lord to judge a nation is to have all its ruling class being bankers and lawyers. A way that God has blessed China is that the whole ruling Politburo are engineers by training. Engineers are problem solvers. They understand manufacturing and supply chains. Engineers work on 5 year timelines. Bankers and lawyers work on quarterly returns.
The evangelical Charismatic prophetic movement heralded the rise of Donald Trump as the Cyrus figure. The promised ruler from God. Making America great again through blessing Israel.
They forget that God also anointed Cyrus to destroy Babylon. and Babylon is falling.
Pres. Trump and Pres. Xi are supposed to meet in 2 weeks time. If they are still talking to each other by that time and if they are I am interested to see who blinks first. On 1 November Trump says he is starting 100% tariffs on China