China’s exploitation of its monopoly on rare earth elements has become an important point in high-heading talks with President Trump, and experts warn that the United States must prepare for the worst.
Beijing has spurred Trump’s officials in not releasing his repression of seven “heavy” rare metals of rare earth, which are essential for appliances such as smartphones and electric cars, as well as military hardware such as F-35 hunting planes and drones.
On Friday, Trump smoked that China had “completely violated” the terms of a preliminary trade agreement in Geneva, which included a 90 -day tariff truce, which is until mid -August. Trump did not elaborate, but United States commercial representative, Jamieson Greer, said that a concern was that China “continues, already knows, slows and drowned” the flow of critical minerals in the United States.
Treasure Secretary, Scott Bessent, said that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon talk about commercial problems, including dispute on critical minerals.
“What China does is that they contain essential products for Indian industrial supply chains, in Europe. And this is not a reliable partner,” Bessent said in an interview with “Care the Nation” in CBS.
“Some of the products they agreed to release during our agreement are retaining; it is perhaps a problem in the Chinese system, it may be intentional. We will see after the President speaks with the party president.”
However, any China talk in a commercial truce is “little more than window showcase”, according to time mining executive, Mark A. Smith, whose firm Niocorp has a rare developmental installation in Nebraska.
“China strategically chooses minerals for export restrictions that have a disproportionate impact on our military preparation and national defense,” Smith said. “They have virtually every card.”
Since 2023, China has implemented export controls in at least 16 critical minerals as part of what DC Insiders and other experts describe as a highly led campaign to interrupt the United States Defense and Technology Supply Chains.
In the case of the seven weighted rare earth metals recently directed with new license rules, China controls up to 99% of global processing capacity. In turn, the Trump administration has irritated China by imposing more and more consolidated export controls on computer chips made in the United States needed in artificial intelligence.
The proposed presentation of Trump in Greenland rich in resources is widely seen as part of his strategy to reduce the country’s confidence in China. Any other place, the United States recently affected a mineral rights agreement with Ukraine, even when talks to end the war with Russia have been flown.
Mineral sites in Greenland and Ukraine, however, are many years after the demand of the United States. Experts said that they are better as part of a broader strategy that includes increased domestic mining, as well as close collaboration with resources rich allies to reduce China’s dependence.
“It’s a reliability of the access problem,” a house assistant reported about the situation in The Post. “As we are right now, I think we are very prepared and we cannot buy the processing capacity on the shelf.”
The risk of a total seizure in response to the increase in geopolitical tensions may seem worn out, but it has a precedent. In 2010, China briefly caused chaos when it stopped shipments from rare earth elements to Japan, while both countries were locked in a territorial dispute.
Some inmates believe that China would inevitably resort to similar tactics in the event of more serious diplomatic dispute with the United States, such as a possible invasion of Taiwan.
The congress must “anticipate the worst”, according to representative Don Bacon (R-Neb.), A retired air force officer and member of the Chamber’s Armed Services Committee.
“After 30 years in the army, I found that we tend to exaggerate the enemy’s abilities, but we tend to underestimate his intentions,” Bacon said in an interview. “And I think that if this is an option for China and we are playing hardball, oh, yes, they can close these things if they want. That’s why it is very important that we find alternative areas.”
A White House official said that Trump takes corrective actions after former President Joe Biden “would extend domestic mining and delayed permission for years in favor of” green “energy projects.
“In the first 100 days of President Trump, he has taken daring and decisive steps to reverse the course,” the official said. “He signed Executive Order 14241 to increase the production of American minerals, launched a national critical mineral strategy, which made a quick track for key projects, and initiated a section 232 research on Chinese mineral imports.”
“The administration also pursues new market mechanisms, export controls on mineral recycling, and a fund to accelerate United States dominance in this life sector,” added the White House official.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies warned in a recent report that the North -Americans were “especially vulnerable” to any disruption of heavy rare land shipments.
First announced in April, China’s license requirements in rare land magnets let western companies climb until their stocks were exhausted. The wide change to the “just in time” supply chains in recent decades means that many companies have only retained three to six months of critical minerals.
Not even Elon Musk, who has cultivated close ties with both Beijing and Trump while running Tesla, is immune to the negative effects. During the Tesla 22 earn call, Musk admitted that China’s export controls in rare land magnets could delay the company’s humanoid robot production.
Metal traders and other executives from various industries are already “very, very worried” and have begun to sound the alarm to Capitol Hill about the problem that would be a long -term stop for the economy, said the house assistant.
“In the emails we get on the potential impact of a sustained and significant rare ground control in the United States market, the answer is quite frantic,” said the house assistant.
Some legislative efforts are underway to Congress to deal with the crisis of management. Representative Rob Wittman (R-VA.), Directed by the China Mineral Mineral Policy Working Group House Committee, has supported a trio of bills for arranging the United States supply chain and to fight China’s attempts to take advantage of its monopoly.
According to the site, industry officials have also called on the United States Government to facilitate heavy regulations and environmental permission processes that have refrigerated investment in rare land mining and have caused significant delays in existing projects.
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Image Source : nypost.com