… The reason the US is dependent on China for rare earth elements is because processing technology has advanced multiple generations in the past two decades. The majority of the world’s rare earths are now processed in Baotou Inner Mongolia, largely using third-generation sulfuric acid roasting technology, having long ago abandoned polluting in-situ leaching. …
The US is dependent on China for rare earth elements because rare earth chemistry programs are offered at dozens of Chinese universities versus none in the US.
China has produced over 50,000 rare earth patents in the past two decades versus a de minimis number anywhere else. Cutting-edge science in the field is published in a handful of dedicated Chinese rare earth journals. …
There are (too) many parallels of our rare earth “predicament” to the several other “unsustainable” “predicaments” in which we find ourselves. Without listing them tediously (we all know but pretend there’s no problem today in my back yard), I can’t think of a single one which was unforeseeable or not preventable. It has come down to which of the “predicaments” will bring us down first. This is just another way of pointing out the obvious: we have failed culturally, ethically and politically to govern ourselves. The usual chorus of utopian do-gooders, advocating either kicking the cans farther down the road or active self-initiated active euthanasia of the US, will be too busy running away to caves (or elaborate private shelters) to even wring their hands or complain.
We likely sold the barrel over which China has us, to them at a loss and assumed the position once they possessed it. Unlike tiny Israel, we fail to understand that adversaries and enemies mean it when they say “Death to you” and act daily as though they mean precisely that for several decades (and, pitifully, if they understand us reasonably well, they might realize they can spare themselves the wounds of a war, by merely waiting, while we either collapse of our own unsupportable weight or self-destruct with help from some self-hating minority (and passive majority) in some undoubtedly very clever, high tech manner.
What really struck me about that article is that China, which reputedly just steals IP from advanced America, has been filing about 7 rare earth patents per day (!) over the last 2 decades, weekends and vacations included. And the US has been filing effectively none.
Plus the fact that not a single US university has a program in now-vital rare earths – despite the huge funding FedGov pours into academia.
The standard Far Left view is that the US is the hotbed of research & innovation, and then we outsource the dirty work of actual production to places like China because that is (somehow) better for Mother Earth. Looks like that standard Far Left view does not hold up to scrutiny.
I’m not sure how this is a “left” or “far left” view (except, perhaps, for the part about Mother Earth). In my experience, this is a view that is also very much held by the “right”—including those who advocate for a “muscular” American foreign policy and want to involve us in various wars around the world. I completely agree with your point that the view does not hold up to scrutiny. Sadly (or not so sadly, depending on your perspective), America is writting checks—both literally and figuratively—it increasingly lacks the technological, industrial and fiscal wherewithal to cash.