The Washington Post: Beijing is controlling the pace of US defense production
The Washington Post published an article titled “China’s dominance of rare earth elements entrenched by the American bureaucracy,” by Megan Rice.
The article focuses on the need to reduce the US reliance on China for rare earth processing, as this reliance has become a direct threat to US national security and military defense, according to her.
China’s apparent move to prevent US defense companies from acquiring rare earth metal magnets reveals the dangers of allowing an adversary to control the flow of a vital military resource.
US manufacturers and policymakers have been oblivious to action for years, resulting in China controlling 90% of the world’s biometals processing.
It notes that Beijing uses this hegemony as a political and economic weapon, and can choke supplies at any time, as Beijing controls the pace of US defense production that relies on these minerals.
When one country controls the middle of the road, it also controls the pace of reconstruction, repair, and rearmament.
Rice is calling on the United States to move quickly to develop self-reliance in the field of rare metals, while threatening to stifle access to them.
It also calls for speeding up the issuance of permits, standardizing reviews of government agencies and setting fixed dates for them, reducing long-term judicial interventions, and taking advantage of the “Defense Production Act” to speed up projects, stressing that the problem lies in the US bureaucracy.
This is a strategic issue that affects America’s ability to fight a long war, as it will certainly depend on the availability of metals, considering that victory depends not only on sophisticated weapons, but on the ability to quickly compensate for them.
If the US government moves now to reduce bureaucracy, the US can rebuild processing capacity within three to five years,” the article concluded.
