Rare earth minerals are essential for modern technology. The good news is that they are available virtually everywhere. The bad news is that they generally require strip mining to produce ore, and then the ore must be processed and refined.
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This means that virtually all our technology is dependent on China, even military technology like the advanced F-35 fighter jet. Imagine not being able to build war planes without China’s cooperation. Even if China were neutral toward the U.S., this situation would be unacceptable.
China’s plan is to become the lone global superpower by 2049, if not sooner. Toward that goal, China is quietly but certainly preparing itself for confrontation, if not war. This is evidenced, in part, by China’s focus on electrifying its economy to reduce dependency on the global oil and natural gas market dominated by the U.S.
China has also cleverly worked to avoid war against a superior foe by simply checkmating the U.S. and western nations through economic and energy dependence, and even sabotage. After being mildly criticized by Australia during COVID, China announced that it would use trade as a weapon and then promptly stopped trading with Australia. More recently, in response to U.S. and European efforts to build EV batteries domestically, China announced export limits on the rare earths and processed graphite needed to make batteries.
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Our China-dependent technology includes all the wind turbines, solar panels, grid batteries and EVs that greens have induced us to buy over the past two decades. Worse than just the $250 billion in solar subsidies China expected to reap from U.S. taxpayers through the Green New Scam is the fact that electricity prices and equipment availability in the U.S. would be almost entirely dependent on the goodwill of China. The OBBBA reduced Green New Scam spending by about $500 billion, but there is still another $500 billion or so left over from its passage that can be spent on technology from China.
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At this point, we don’t even know how vulnerable to China we really are. It’s almost too scary to think about. But we must find out. Here is how to start:
In the wake of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commission notified publicly-traded companies that, given the war, they might have to disclose their dependence on, or involvement with, Russia. Because our economy relies to a much greater extent on China than Russia, I subsequently petitioned the SEC to require that publicly traded companies report to their shareholders on their dependency to China. I didn’t expect the Biden administration to do anything, and it lived up to my expectations. But the Trump administration should follow up.
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Some may think that if we are vulnerable to China then they must somehow be vulnerable to us, and the vulnerabilities would be offsetting. But Communist China is a ruthless totalitarian state that is willing to do unspeakable things and impose conditions on its own population that westerners can’t imagine or don’t appreciate. If economic and societal pain comes from war or confrontation, China’s zero tolerance for internal dissent will be a key advantage.
To be prepared to defend ourselves, we must understand our vulnerabilities as soon as possible. Communist China already knows them and may be ready to exploit them at any time.
* Original Article:
STEVE MILLOY: Trump Moves To Break US Dependence On Communist China