Highlights

• A Beijing think tank argues that the U.S. is constructing a “three-tier dollar zone” to bind resources, energy, and supply chains into a reinforced financial order, though the analysis overstates American coordination while understating both the U.S.'s structural strengths and China’s vulnerabilities.
• The U.S. is genuinely strengthening mineral partnerships and linking critical minerals to national security policy, marking a real evolution from the petrodollar system toward a broader energy-minerals-technology nexus anchored in dollar liquidity.
• While China dominates processing scale, America’s advantages lie in financial gravity, deep capital markets, alliance networks, and the dollar’s continued dominance as the world’s preferred reserve currency due to depth, transparency, and the rule of law.

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A Beijing-based think tank argues the United States is constructing a “three-tier dollar zone” to bind resources, energy, and supply chains into a reinforced financial order. The thesis is provocative—and partly grounded in reality. But it reflects a China-centric lens that overstates U.S. coordination while understating both America’s structural strengths and China’s own vulnerabilities.

A Grand Design—or a Theory Too Neat

A recent analysis by Anbound (opens in a new tab) in Eurasia Review (opens in a new tab) suggests President Donald Trump is advancing a system where the Americas anchor resource supply, Asia and the Middle East function as strategic control zones, and other regions orbit within a dollar-centered framework. It is a clean narrative. Real-world policy is rarely so tidy.

Where the Argument Lands

There is substance beneath the framing in what Rare Earth Exchanges™ terms the Great Powers Era 2.0:

• The U.S. is strengthening mineral partnerships with allies such as Australia, Canada, and Latin American producers
• Critical minerals—lithium, copper, rare earths—are now central to U.S. industrial and national security policy
• Supply chains are increasingly shaped by geopolitics, not just market efficiency

This marks a real evolution: from a narrow petrodollar system toward a broader energy–minerals–technology nexus anchored in dollar liquidity.

Where It Overreaches

The report assumes a level of orchestration Washington does not consistently achieve:

• U.S. mineral strategy remains distributed across multiple agencies and political cycles
• Domestic capacity—from separation to magnet manufacturing—is still scaling, not dominant
• Some capital has been misallocated, with projects advancing more slowly than policy ambitions

In practice, the United States is building a system—but unevenly and in real time.

What the Analysis Leaves Out

The critique understates both American advantages and China’s constraints:

• The dollar remains the world’s preferred reserve and settlement currency due to depth, transparency, and the rule of law
• U.S.-aligned deep capital markets still set the global cost of capital
• China dominates processing, but relies heavily on export markets and external demand

China’s strength is industrial scale. America’s strength is financial gravity and alliance networks, and the nexus of market consumerism.

Why This Matters

This is not abstract theory. It is the future of supply chains.

If the U.S. succeeds, critical minerals will increasingly move through trusted, allied systems backed by dollar liquidity. That would reshape pricing power, financing, and long-term supply security.

Bottom Line

The “three-tier dollar zone” is not a finished architecture. It is a strategic direction.

Washington is linking minerals, money, and power with greater intent than before. The execution is incomplete—but the trajectory is real, and increasingly consequential.