The US' aluminum war with China has been getting super weird lately

Perhaps you didn't know this, but the US and China have been battling over aluminum for quite some time now, and over the last week or so the conflict has gotten particularly weird.
As proof, I submit this item reported by the Wall Street Journal's Scott Patterson. The US just seized $25 million worth of aluminum connected to a Chinese aluminum tycoon named Liu Zhongtian.
Liu stands accused of stockpiling the metal around the world and then using complicated trade routes to get it