President-elect Donald Trump and Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO’s military committee, understand that you cannot separate our economic and military competition with China.
Bauer warned at a meeting of the European Policy Centre in Brussels that China is quickly cornering the market on rare earth minerals and other natural resources.
“We are naive if we think the Communist Party will never use that power,” he said. “Business leaders in Europe and America need to realize that the commercial decisions they make have strategic consequences for the security of their nation.”
Yet President Biden’s focus on “green” energy has made China stronger and America weaker. China is dominating critical minerals vital for these technologies, while US automakers are laying off workers.
To ensure that America does not choose to depend on the Chinese Communist Party, which owns a stake in major Chinese industries, our nation must advance and implement policies that reduce US reliance on China’s economy.
Biden’s regulations require the purchase of Chinese-sourced renewables, electric vehicles, batteries and critical minerals. At the same time, Biden, seeking zero carbon emissions, has discouraged the development and use of domestic supplies of oil, natural gas and critical minerals.
Natural-gas power plants require one ton of critical minerals for every megawatt of power capacity, while nuclear power plants need six tons.
But onshore wind plants require 11 tons, and offshore wind demands 17 tons — for the same megawatt of energy output. States that require renewables have higher residential electricity costs than states that do not.
US national-security policy should focus on exploring and extracting key resources in America, in partner countries and in international waters; transporting and processing these resources safe from leverage by US adversaries; using US energy sources and technologies protected from manipulation; and shielding US allies from foreign leverage and manipulation.
The US Geological Survey lists 50 critical minerals and rare-earth elements that are “essential to the economic or national security of the United States, have a supply chain that is vulnerable to disruption and serve an essential function” in manufacturing.
These materials are important in various high-tech applications such as metallurgy, batteries, catalysts, lasers, medical imaging and electronic components.
The CCP controls the supply chains of these critical minerals and rare-earth elements through subsidies, slave labor and purchases in Africa and Latin America.
China controls 38% of the reserves of global rare-earth elements; 60% of rare-earth mining, 85% of rare-earth processing, and 90% of rare-earth permanent magnet manufacturing; 80% percent of solar component production; 85% percent of global battery production; and 80% percent of cobalt refining capacity.
These minerals are vital to costly renewable energy and electric transportation required by the Biden-Harris regulations.
Biden’s mandates and Chinese dominance pose major national-security problems because the CCP can cut supplies of these minerals to the West. Chinese EVs can be disabled, their navigation and braking systems corrupted, and they can send information back to China.
Biden’s rationale for sidelining oil and gas is that fossil fuels are causing climate change.
But even if America and Western Europe stopped using all fossil fuels today, temperatures would decline by a mere 0.3 degrees Celsius by 2100, according to government models run by The Heritage Foundation.
China, India, Russia, Africa and Latin America are increasing their consumption of fossil fuels, so American emissions are an increasingly smaller share of global emissions.
A massive overhaul of energy and transportation regulations and US critical mineral policies should be a top priority for the Trump administration.
America must stop helping the CCP to expand this market power and increase its dominance over overseas companies and citizens.
China has grown more aggressive abroad, more repressive at home and more determined to replace America as the world’s pre-eminent power — at the same time as America’s electricity and transportation prices are rising and workers are losing jobs. It’s time for a new strategy.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth directs the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation. She is coauthor of Extricating America from Its Chinese Handcuffs (Heritage Special Report, September 2024).
Heed the warnings – we need to be economically independent from China, or they will punish us
