U.S.-China competition deepening on rare earths, biotech and shipbuilding

Chinese restrictions on rare earth mineral exports could have detrimental impacts on the U.S. defense industry, according to Sen. Todd Young.

Rare earths are critical to defense products such as artificial intelligence microchips and parts of the newest U.S. stealth bombers. Mr. Young, Indian Republican, says Beijing’s dominance over the processing of the materials is emerging as a key aspect of U.S.-China competition.

“This competition is currently shaping our lives in fundamental ways,” he said in an exclusive “Threat Status” Influencers video interview with The Washington Times. “It is poised to shape our children’s lives in even more fundamental ways, economically, in terms of our national security and every other facet of life.”

His comments in the video published Thursday come amid rising concern within the U.S. national security community over what analysts describe as a Chinese Communist Party campaign reaching back decades to control the global rare earths market.

“The Middle East has its oil; China has rare earths,” then-communist leader Deng Xiaoping stated in 1992. Deng said rare earth elements are “of extremely important strategic significance.” He vowed that China would develop policies and methods that “make the fullest use of the advantages of our rare earth resources.”

Today, technological advances have made China’s 80% share of the world’s reserves of 17 rare earth metals a valuable strategic tool.

Mr. Young, a former Marine who’s emerged as a leader on policy targeting nuanced aspects of U.S.-China competition, says he’s focused on countering the dominance Beijing has achieved over rare earths since the early 1990s.

“They have vast stores of rare earth minerals and other critical minerals that they provide into the American market,” the senator said of China. “These are key inputs as we electrify our economy. And they’re also key inputs to other, important, manufactured goods like defense articles. We literally cannot produce our defense goods, without access to rare earth minerals.”

Mr. Young introduced a bill in April with Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, that calls for more robust intervention by the U.S. Geological Survey to give American firms a competitive advantage in developing mines around the world.

Sens. John Cornyn, Texas Republican and John Hickenlooper, Colorado Democrat, also signed on to the bill, which is currently awaiting action in the Senate.

In the interim, there are signs Beijing may be intent on exploiting its control over the market to undermine U.S. manufacturing. On Oct. 9, the CCP’s Commerce Ministry announced expanded export controls on rare earths and related products, including certain magnets and rare earths processing technologies.

The controls, which are slated to go into effect in early November, apply to Chinese companies as well as foreign companies operating in China.

The move comes as U.S. influence in countries known for rare earth mineral mining is being challenged. 

Multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa have seen a rise in recent years of both Chinese military and Russian paramilitary outfits, such as the Wagner Group, attempting to influence control over local mines containing rare earth minerals.

Mr. Young told The Times that China is working to undermine U.S. leadership globally.

“That would be advantageous not just to China, but also other countries that are led by autocrats, like Russia, Iran, Venezuela and many others,” he said. Mr. Young’s policy leadership on a variety of issues has focused on the U.S.-China battle for supremacy over futuristic technology.

With a reputation as a bipartisan problem solver, Mr. Young is among a small group of senators from both parties who’ve brought microelectronics policy to the forefront of national security. He co-authored the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act that reshaped global competition on advanced semiconductors.

Mr. Young also chairs the Senate’s National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology. He wrote in an action plan delivered by the commission to Congress earlier this year that U.S.-China competition on biotech will “define the coming century.”

On a separate front, Mr. Young is pushing legislation to address China’s dominance in commercial shipbuilding. In April, he and Sen. Mark Kelly, Arizona Democrat, introduced the SHIPS for America Act aimed at revitalizing the shipbuilding and commercial maritime industries.

• Bill Gertz contributed to this article.