Highlights
- China dominates rare earth processing and manufacturing.
- China controls 92% of rare earth processing and the entire value chain from mining to magnet production.
- The U.S. lacks a vertically integrated rare earth supply system.
- This creates strategic dependencies that threaten the defense, EV, and tech sectors.
- Geopolitical tensions reveal the need for a comprehensive industrial policy.
- Allied partnerships are necessary to secure critical mineral supply chains.
A recent CNN report (opens in a new tab) by Nectar Gan and John Liu highlights China’s retaliatory use of rare earth export controls in response to President Trump’s new round of tariffs—a move that underscores the precarious global dependence on China’s dominance of rare earth refining, magnet manufacturing, and component supply. While CNN paints a compelling narrative of geopolitical chess, the article omits key dimensions of the rare earth industry’s structure and overplays raw mining figures without fully explaining the strategic role of midstream and downstream capabilities—namely, separation, metallization, magnet production, and component integration.
Midstream Control is the Choke Point, Not Mining Alone
While CNN correctly cites China’s control of 61% of rare earth ore production and 92% of processing, the framing misses the central industrial dynamic: rare earths are not valuable in rock—they are valuable once separated, purified, alloyed, and assembled into finished parts. This is less akin to traditional mining and more analogous to crude oil refining. Without midstream separation and refining facilities and downstream magnet and component plants, mined ores in the U.S. or Australia are functionally inert. China’s dominance of the full value chain—from bastnaesite and monazite concentrate through oxide separation and sintered magnet production—represents the true strategic asymmetry.
U.S. Capacity Still Fragmented, Systemic Industrial Strategy Absent
The CNN piece references several American efforts—from Phoenix Tailings’ metal refining to USA Rare Earth’s planned magnet plant in Texas—but glosses over the fragmentation of U.S. industry. There is no vertically integrated, scalable mine-to-magnet system currently operating aside from the early-stage efforts of MP Materials. In fact, the article does not even mention the national treasure trove, evidencing just how lacking the major news agency has become.
Meanwhile, China’s new export controls cover not only oxides but also downstream alloys and even trace-element-containing products. The “surprise” faced by U.S. and EU companies, whose shipments are now suspended, reveals the West’s lack of contingency planning and inadequate stockpiling strategies. CNN references Trump’s executive order to study critical mineral supply chains but fails to explain why such studies weren’t completed during his first administration or under Biden’s infrastructure initiatives. While China acts with precision, a six-month review seems dangerously slow-footed, as Rare Earth Exchanges has already called out.
Strategic Risk Meets Market Opportunity—If Policy Aligns with Industry
To its credit, the article highlights how U.S. dependence—70% of rare earth compound and metal imports came from China between 2020–2023—creates a unique moment of both crisis and opportunity. With $439 million in DoD grants already issued and clear demand from the defense, EV, and consumer tech sectors, the U.S. has the raw potential to reboot this critical industry. But Rare Earth Exchanges has reported the Trump administration remains orders of magnitude off of the actual cost of resilience.
CNN does not examine whether current permitting timelines, environmental regulations, or fragmented capital markets can enable rapid scale-up. Nor does it address the vital role allies like Australia and Canada play not only as ore exporters but as processing partners. Treating trade partners transactionally, as the U.S. often does, especially in the latest Trump paradigm, undermines the creation of a secure allied supply web.
Wake-Up Call with Teeth
CNN’s report reinforces what Rare Earth Exchanges has warned since the launching of the platform: the U.S. cannot win a tech-based trade war if it lacks control over the materials powering its weapons, vehicles, and networks. China has weaponized its industrial policy, and export controls are just one tool. The real battle is over systems—not just rocks. America must stop studying and start building. That means full-spectrum investment: upstream, midstream, and downstream. The future won’t wait.
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