Rare earths. Seeking west’s strategic responses to China’s dominance

Efforts to keep up with the ever-accelerating pace of technological progress are intrinsically bound to these elements, making the stability and security of their supply chains a strategic priority for many countries.

The key “future” technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, renewable green energy, electric vehicles, advanced chip manufacturing and modern warfare are all, in one way or another, dependent on the REEs. Their production and supply on the global market are now largely controlled by Beijing, making the issue of their availability a huge challenge for the West. Decades of proactive policy and investment in the rare earth sector have enabled China to establish itself on the global market as the unquestioned leader in both extraction and processing, and most importantly, as a leader in the research and industrial application of related niche technologies.

The world’s dependence on China, which controls more than 80% of the global rare-earth element market, poses significant geopolitical risks. China’s ability not only to secure the supply of these resources, but also to control their global prices, gives Beijing powerful technological, economic and political leverage in the international arena, which the Chinese have been recently increasingly exploiting for pushing their interests. For these reasons, the European Union and other Western countries have recently become particularly active in their efforts to reduce their dependence on China-dominated supply chains and have taken steps in seeking alternative sources of supply, investing in new technologies and strategic stockpiling plans.

However, there is no easy solution to the problem, and the steadily growing demand for rare earths leads to a difficult question: How to remain technologically competitive and, at the same time, significantly reduce our dependence on China?

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