OPINION:
The Chinese Communist Party put out a statement that makes clear any and all natural resources, including rare earth metals, are CCP properties and that beginning Oct. 1, the state will track, surveil and record into a database all extraction, all imports and all usage of these resources.
Happy Independence Day, America.
Nothing says God Bless America like a good old-fashioned giveaway of sovereignty, independence and liberty to the likes of communists in China.
If America under the present Biden administration weren’t so dead set on developing green energy sources, while simultaneously clamping the ability of U.S. entities from mining and extracting on public lands, then perhaps the CCP’s explicit grab of all resources within China boundaries wouldn’t pose such a threat. But this White House is determined to fill America’s roads with electric vehicles, power American households by wind and fight America’s military battles with clean-energy tanks, ships and planes. And all of that requires rare earth elements. Are we to kiss China’s boots to get the energy we need to survive, never mind grow?
Currently, China is the top producer of rare earths in the world. The United States is second — but it’s not even a close contest. For every 740,000 metric tons from China, America produces 43,000. Next on the list: Myanmar, with 38,000 metric tons; Australia, with 18,000; Thailand, with 7,100; and then all the other countries — collectively, with 3,900.
This is a serious situation, both economically and as a national security risk.
It’s also a situation that can’t be turned around in a day.
“China,” Politico reported, “produces around 60 percent of the world’s rare earth metals and is the origin of around 90 percent of refined rare earths on the market.”
The CCP has already locked down exports of rare earth resources needed for computer chip production. Its latest announcement — specifically, that “no organization or person may encroach on or destroy rare-earth resources” without CCP’s explicit permission — serves only to enrich and empower the communists while threatening the world’s ability to access critical technologies and energy supplies.
The European Union has recognized the danger, and reacted accordingly. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in June of 2023 announced a European Union “Just Transition Fund” project to fund a Canadian company, Neo Performance Materials, to build a rare earth refinery in Estonia. Meanwhile, in March, the Australian government announced a debt finance package of $533 million for Arafura Rare Earths to further develop its Nolans Project, a rare earths mine and refinery in Alice Springs, in northern Australia. But those are minuscule moves in a game China’s determined to win.
“The Malaysian Minister of Natural Resources,” Adamas Intelligence wrote in March, “stated … an estimated 16,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides have been illegally mined … in the {Malaysian] states of Kedah, Pahang and Perak … and shipped to China in the past year or so.”
The takeaway?
America needs to do better.
And even when President Biden’s America does better — it doesn’t.
“Biden-Harris Administration Invests $16 Million to Build America’s First-of-a-Kind Critical Minerals Production Facility,” blared one Department of Energy headline in April 2023.
Read the fine print, though.
“The project,” DOE continues, “will study how … West Virginia and North Dakota … can extract critical minerals from coal mine waste streams. … The University of North Dakota will complete a study to recover and refine rare earth elements and critical minerals from North Dakota lignite mine wastes … West Virginia University will complete a study for producing rare earth elements and critical minerals using acid mine drainage …” yada yada yada.
China extracts.
America studies.
As DOE also wrote: ““The United States imports more than 80% of its rare earth elements and critical minerals to produce clean energy technologies and other indispensable products that we rely on every day such as smart phones, computer and medical equipment.”
China dominates.
America dithers.
And Biden and his band of Democrat climate change alarmists sell America down the river to the communists in China.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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