America's Rare Earth Crisis: China Controls the Supply Chain, and Washington Is Running Out of Time

Highlights

• China's control over rare earth refining, metallurgy, and magnet production creates strategic chokepoints that can be weaponized faster than the West can rebuild supply chains.
• REEx's Transition Vulnerability Window framework warns that export restrictions can hit in days while Western processing and customer qualification takes years.
• REEx recommends a National Critical Minerals Supply Chain Command to map vulnerabilities from mines through Tier 3 and Tier 4 suppliers to final weapons systems.
• Midstream processing—separation, refining, metallization, and alloying—should be treated as regulated industrial utilities, not just investment opportunities.
• Success must be measured by qualified, traceable material delivery during disruption scenarios, not by announced investments or projected nameplate capacity.