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America Has Been ‘Asleep at the Wheel’ on China’s REE threat

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America Has Been ‘Asleep at the Wheel’ on China’s Rare-Earth Threat

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan talks about new legislation that would require the Pentagon to ensure access to critical defense minerals.
Lara SeligmanJune 28, 2019

 President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during this weekend’s G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Congress is growing increasingly concerned that the supply of critical rare-earth minerals found in every advanced weapon in the U.S. arsenal could be a casualty of the escalating trade war. Chinese officials have in recent months raised the specter that Beijing could potentially cut off supplies of critical rare-earth materials—key components in products including cell phones and smart bombs—to the United States in response to Trump’s decision to impose harsh tariffs on Chinese goods and blacklist the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Experts say such a move by China could devastate the United States’ ability to wage war, as Beijing controls more than 90 percent of the global production of these minerals. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania and former chemistry teacher, wants the Defense Department to do more to tackle this threat...

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/28/america-has-been-asleep-at-the-wheel-on-chinas-rare-earths-threat/