The United States is racing to secure a domestic supply of critical minerals essential to our national and economic security. For years, we have relied on foreign countries — i.e., China — that have weaponized this dependence to advance their own agenda.
For the last several decades, China has been making strategic investments to build global, vertically integrated supply chains. Today, China has a near monopoly on many of the materials we need for essential manufacturing, including weapons production. For instance, China controls 91% of global rare-earth refining production, and, if you include Myanmar, it controls 83% of heavy rare-earth mined production. This came to a head last year when China announced it would restrict exports of rare earth elements to the U.S. amid a trade war between the two nations.
