Is U.S. Weaponry Now Dependent On China?

60 Minutes/CBS News: Modern life's devices under China's grip?

From smartphones to cars and defense missiles, modern U.S. life depends on rare earth elements but China dominates the industry

Editor's Note: In September 2014, while we were working on this story, a Pentagon spokesman emailed us to say:

"The Department of Defense is confident in the ability of the defense industry to remain supplied with all necessary rare earths for U.S. defense acquisition programs. The Department continuously monitors and assesses its raw materials requirements, and if necessary, will again take action to ensure their availability to the defense industrial base."

That confidence is at odds with the Pentagon's Inspector General's Office, which issued a report on July 3, 2014 that concluded:

"DoD [Department of Defense] lacked a comprehensive and reliable process to assess REE supply and demand.... [and] As a result, DoD may not have identified all REEs with expected shortfalls, increasing the risk that those shortfalls will adversely affect critical weapons systems production in the DIB, and overall DoD readiness."

Update: U.S. weaponry dependent on China? -- 60 Minutes/CBS News

WNU Editor: A good summary on why rare earths are valuable and essential for modern societies and for modern militaries.

The Geopolitics Of Rare Earths

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Adam Minter, Bloomberg: The Geopolitics of 17 Very Obscure Minerals

WNU Editor: Rare earths are critical minerals used in essentially everything. China has a dominant position on these minerals because they subsidize their extraction and production to a level that makes it uneconomical for any other country/company to compete against. Will China's monopoly continue .... probably .... but they are going to be paying dearly to have that "strategic privilege" .... and one that can only be used if they decide one day to use it in a political crisis.

On a side note .... one reason why China has always been accommodating to North Korea is because of this .... North Korea Possesses Two-Thirds Of The World’s Rare Earths.