New Delhi, March 18 (NationPress) The United States perceives China's control over rare earth minerals—essential components for electronic devices, defense systems, and electric vehicles—as a significant obstacle. Interestingly, high-ranking officials acknowledge that the US itself contributed to the transfer of technology and production capabilities to China.

A report featured on the US news site Defense One reveals that Washington willingly passed on this technology to China to mitigate the severe pollution associated with the extraction of these minerals.

According to Mike Cadenazzi, the US assistant defense secretary for industrial base policy, “Following the Cold War, we transferred our hard-earned scientific advancements and leading technologies to China with the intention of avoiding pollution. While that was a reasonable decision, it led to the loss of two generations of scientists, engineers, and business professionals who could have enhanced our capabilities.”

“Instead of innovating cleaner production methods, we inadvertently became 95 percent reliant on China for rare earths. As a result, I now have a periodic table of elements displayed next to my desk that I reference daily,” Cadenazzi noted.

He emphasized that the US now faces a strategic competitor in China, which presents a new level of challenge, necessitating urgent actions to bridge manufacturing gaps and secure access to these critical minerals.

Cadenazzi further indicated that China represents 30 percent of global manufacturing, while the US accounts for only 17 percent. He highlighted that China's overall manufacturing capacity vastly exceeds that of the US.

The dominance of critical minerals by China is a crucial factor contributing to this disparity.

China is responsible for approximately 70 percent of the world's rare earth production and processes about 90 percent of these minerals. However, the United States has made substantial investments in refining and processing minerals and recently announced a “framework for mining and processing critical minerals and rare earths” in collaboration with Australia, according to Jennifer Hlad, managing editor at Defense One.

Other nations are also striving to boost the production and refinement of critical minerals. Almonty Industries, a Canadian firm, is set to inaugurate a new processing facility at a tungsten mine in South Korea next week, which it claims will meet about 40 percent of the global tungsten demand outside of China, thereby challenging the Asian giant's dominance in the market, as the report indicates.