Deng\u2019s vision and American missteps combined to give China what is today a huge critical edge.<\/p>\n
Mining and processing are the hard parts \u2013 not finding<\/p>\n
The 17 critical metallic elements<\/a> in the middle of the periodic table that are grouped under the term rare earth elements make up the invisible backbone of the modern technological world. Smartphones, electric vehicles, wind turbines, military drones and even sophisticated aerospace systems (F-35) and radar all depend on rare earth elements.<\/p>\n Rare earth minerals aren\u2019t rare. They are called \u201crare\u201d because they are highly unlikely to be found in pure form or in economically viable high concentrations in nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n These minerals are either dispersed or mixed with other minerals, making it challenging and costly to extract and refine them. The process is also not environmentally friendly.\u00a0The difficulty is precisely what fuels their strategic importance.<\/p>\n Dirty work\u00a0<\/p>\n The Chinese didn\u2019t decide to dominate the rare earth years ago. The US and others in the West decided to dump the \u201cdirty work\u201d and China became the one left doing it.<\/p>\n Until the 1980s,\u00a0the United States was the world\u2019s leading producer of rare earth minerals, but the Americans gradually shifted the production to China, enticed by lower environmental standards and lower labor costs.<\/p>\n In 1980, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency By 1996, America had outsourced so much mining of minerals \u2013 including rare earths \u2013 that Congress as a cost-saving measure had seen fit to shut down<\/a> the US Bureau of Mines, the government\u2019s main regulatory and research agency focused on the mining industry.<\/p>\n As the US stepped back, China picked up the slack and learned the rare earths craft. It accepted the environmental burden and channeled massive resources into developing its rare earths industry.<\/p>\n Apart from having the highest reserve of rare earth elements ( 44 million metric tons ) in the world, China currently controls approximately 70% of global rare earth mining production,\u00a0 85% of refining and 98<\/a>% of processing capacities worldwide.<\/p>\n Today China controls 80% of the rare earths patents. China has 39<\/a> universities offering training programs in rare earths and seven universities offering courses in rare earths processing. Although institutions such as the University of Texas<\/a> now seek to pick up the challenge, the US presently is far from being in China\u2019s league. All of this makes China\u2019s domination of the industry hard to challenge.<\/p>\n Beijing has seen opportunity and has long supported its rare earths industry, even when it wasn\u2019t immediately profitable creating a self-sufficient, world-leading ecosystem. It has made a strategic choice to nurture this industry and maintain leadership in production, refining and processing. Washington and the West have overlooked this industry for decades, but it was always there in the background of globalization.\u00a0<\/p>\n A moment of realization occurred to the US in\u00a0 April 2025 during the trade war. After the White House raised tariffs<\/a> on Chinese goods to 145%, Beijing retaliated by imposing export controls on seven types of rare earths and magnets. The export controls that China put in place on April 4th <\/a>\u00a0gave an indication of the pain it could inflict on the US and its pace of innovation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rare earths accounted for only a tiny share of China\u2019s exports to the US but they are used in the most critical sector of the US economy. So the April move, while causing relatively little economic pain in the US, provoked an outcry from American defense manufacturers.<\/p>\n The point is that rare earths have become one of China\u2019s most powerful bargaining chips. China plays its rare-earths card as an ace when the US presses on chip sanctions.\u00a0<\/p>\n China\u2019s chokehold on America innovation\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2024, a study by RAND Corporation warned that a rare earth supply disruption lasting just 90 days could shut down production lines at 78% of US defense contractors. After China\u2019s retaliations, two rounds of high-level negotiations followed. They led to a 90-day truce between Washington and Beijing, giving indication that America does have a choke point.<\/p>\n This dependency goes beyond defense to include cutting-edge technology in which America is a leader such as next generation computing, robotics, medical devices and quantum hardware. It\u2019s a kill switch. Today American innovation is determined by China-controlled supply chains and export measures. Chinese government approval for using rare earth magnets in the US or other military is a strategic leverage point.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today Rare earth elements aren\u2019t just commodities. They are, from any nation\u2019s perspective, strategic assets shaping the geopolitical landscape. For any nation in the world, securing its future is essential for economic stability, technological advancement and national security.<\/p>\n And that gets us to Greenland<\/p>\n Donald Trump\u2019s interest in Canada and Greenland is by no means accidental. Both countries sit on vast reserves of rare earth minerals. Greenland\u2019s Kanana region holds some of the world\u2019s richest deposits of heavy elements such as disprosium and terbium. A 2023 survey<\/a> showed that 25 of 34 minerals deemed \u201ccritical raw materials\u201d by the European Commission were found in Greenland.\u00a0<\/p>\n But according to RAND estimates it will take the US at least a decade or more and $10-to-$15 billion to build a self-sufficient rare earths supply chain. How America approaches the rare earths strategy in the near future will be a litmus test for the kind of nation it wants to be in decades ahead. But even if everything goes smoothly and all the complications are properly addressed, the outcome is far from guaranteed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
tightened regulatons on rare earth elements, terming them \u201csource material.\u201d That made handling the elements and disposing of byproducts too expensive to do domestically<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_8050.jpeg\")
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