Make China Pay for Pulling the Rare Earth Card.
Author | Magnuson, Stew |
* In May 2014, then-Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin threatened to cut off the supply of Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines to the United States as the two great powers tussled diplomatically about the invasion of Ukraine.
"Wait! What?" said hundreds of members of Congress. "We depend on Russia for national security launch rocket engines?"
Most of them didn't have a clue, but they readily approved funding for the U.S. industrial base to develop its own rockets, which eventually will mean a loss of jobs and trade for Russia.
Five years later, as the United States and China engage in a bruising trade war, the Association of China Rare Earth Industry--a consortium of six state-owned companies--said in an Aug. 5 statement that "U.S. consumers must shoulder the costs from US.-imposed tariffs," according to the South China Morning Post.
And there it is: finally someone in China foolish enough to pull out the nation's rare earth monopoly card. Hopefully with this wake-up call, Congress will make China find out the hard way what Rogozin learned in 2014.
The nation needs to take action to end China's monopoly on these critical elements that are necessary for everything from smartphones to critical weapon systems such as the F-35, along with just about everything Pentagon officials have called the weapons of the future: hypersonics, directed energy and robotics. None of them will work without rare earth elements.
A few weeks before the threat was delivered, proponents lobbying for the rebirth of the U.S. rare earth industry gathered on Capitol Hill to make their case to congressional staffers in a panel titled, "China's Rare Earth Monopoly: And Why it Has Not Been Solved."
Here is the crux of what they said, and what has been spelled out in black and white in numerous studies including last year's Defense Department report: "Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States."
First, China 25 years ago set out to create a monopoly on rare earth elements knowing that they would be crucial in the production of modern electronics. Except for about 10 percent of the world's supply produced in Japan, it has largely accomplished that goal. It controls mines and, most importantly, the means of refinement and production.
That second part is crucial. The United States has rare earth elements in abundance. But anything it digs up now has to be sent to China for refinement...
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