Communist China, a nation that was economically irrelevant on the world stage just 50 years ago, has systematically outflanked the United States. Decades of misguided American trade, regulatory, and industrial policies have enabled Beijing to dominate the supply of critical materials and manufacturing capacity that power our economy, our technology, and our national defense.
Rare earth elements and critical minerals illustrate the challenge. These materials are essential components in modern defense systems, electronics, electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies, and many everyday products. Yet China dominates the global supply chain, controlling roughly 60% to 70% of rare earth mining and more than 90% of the processing, refining, and permanent magnet production needed to turn these resources into usable materials.
The same vulnerability exists with other critical materials. China controls approximately 99% of global gallium refining capacity, while graphite, antimony, and other minerals vital to batteries, electronics, and defense systems face similar supply chain concentration.
The pharmaceutical supply chain tells the same story. China is the primary source of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in many commonly prescribed antibiotics, as well as a substantial share of the key starting materials and intermediates for generic drugs used by American patients and our military. Disruptions there would not merely raise prices but threaten public health and combat readiness.
America’s dependence on fragile semiconductor supply chains is hard to overstate. China dominates critical stages of electronics manufacturing, from assembly to printed circuit boards and legacy chips, while expanding its influence across the industry. Meanwhile, advanced chip production remains concentrated in Taiwan, a geopolitical flash point that Beijing has made clear it covets. From smartphones to fighter jets, the technologies we rely on are tied to supply chains that could be disrupted by conflict or coercion.
Perhaps the most alarming example is the F-35 Lightning II, the crown jewel of American air superiority. Each aircraft depends on hundreds of pounds of rare earth materials and permanent magnets. Past production delays and waivers have already revealed our reliance on Chinese-sourced components. Our adversaries have no need to shoot down our F-35s in combat. Instead they can simply choke the supply of the materials and magnets needed to build and maintain them. Allowing such a critical weapons system to remain vulnerable to supply chain disruptions is a strategic failure we can no longer afford to ignore.
These vulnerabilities did not emerge by accident. They are the result of decades of decisions that prioritized short-term profits over long-term security, embraced one-sided “free trade” relationships without ensuring reciprocity or national security guardrails, and underestimated the risks of dependence on a strategic adversary.
Economic interdependence with China was often portrayed as a path to peace and prosperity. Instead, it gives Beijing leverage that can be wielded against us when it matters most. Recent Chinese export restrictions on rare earth materials and magnets serve as a stark reminder that Beijing can and will weaponize these choke points.
It is not enough to rhetorically label China our rival or adversary while continuing the very policies and corporate practices that deepen our dependence. We must educate every American that our survival as a free and prosperous nation demands decisive action. We must secure manufacturing independence and trade superiority across critical sectors, with absolute priority on defense systems and the materials that enable them. Half measures and incremental “friend-shoring” will not suffice when the stakes include our ability to deter or win a conflict.
The combination of supply chain dominance by a hostile power with policy failures that have weakened our borders and internal cohesion creates risks that require no shots fired. Economic coercion, intellectual property theft, influence operations, and the slow erosion of our industrial base can achieve strategic effects that traditional warfare might not. We cannot afford to pretend otherwise.
WASHINGTON’S ANTI-CHINA TECH STRATEGY IS BUILT ON A DANGEROUS ILLUSION
The path forward requires clear-eyed recognition of the truth, followed by bold changes in foreign and economic policy. We must accelerate domestic mining, processing, and manufacturing of critical minerals and components through streamlined permitting, targeted investment, and genuine public-private partnerships focused on national security. We must diversify away from adversarial sources with real urgency, rebuild stockpiles, and incentivize American companies to prioritize resilience over marginal cost savings. Above all, we must treat defense industrial base independence as a nonnegotiable imperative, not a secondary concern.
America’s strength has always rested on our ability to produce, innovate, and lead. For too long, we have outsourced that strength. Reclaiming it is not protectionism, it is prudence. It is the same spirit that built the arsenal of democracy and won the Cold War through economic and technological superiority.
Curtis Hill is senior adviser to the Free Enterprise Project of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a Project 21 ambassador, and former Indiana attorney general.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
