Chinas chokehold on critical minerals puts US in unfathomable national security bind: experts

China has a chokehold on the world’s supply of critical minerals – and experts are warning the situation is a major risk to US national security if the government doesn’t step up its efforts to compete.Control over rare earth metals – which are needed to build everything from the semiconductors that power iPhones to wind turbines, electric vehicle batteries and military weaponry like tanks and missiles – have become a key point of friction and souring trade relations between the US and China. Burdensome regulations and decades of lackluster investment have left the US dangerously reliant on China – which mines up to 70% of the world’s critical minerals, controls roughly 90% of the processing capacity and regularly uses unfair trade tactics to press its advantage, sources told The Post.“The fact that we are reliant on China for defense equipment is just a completely unfathomable and untenable situation,” said Pini Althaus, CEO of the New York-based firm USA Rare Earth.

If diplomatic relations get worse or an actual conflict breaks out the two countries, US lawmakers and experts fear that China, led by President Xi Jinping, could cut off the supply entirely – with disastrous consequences for the US auto industry, tech firms and the Pentagon.“Quite frankly, they can turn off the faucet,” Althaus added.China’s decades-long effort to corner the market is heavily subsidized by Beijing, which uses its control over the supply to manipulate prices and enacts ever-tighter export controls to cement its dominance.China has also snapped up mineral rights throughout Africa and other resource-rich locales as part of its Belt and Road Initiative – on highly favorable terms.When the US or other rivals make progress on mining or processing a particular material, such as gallium or lithium, China often responds by flooding the market – which sends prices tumbling and kills the incentive to invest in projects, according to Rep.

Rob Wittman (R-Va.), who ...