Combat Chinese Efforts to Control Military Strategic Materials

EIN News says, "Greens Shackle National Security - And Renewable Energy 23 Oct 2010 - 10:30".

This is a bit short and somewhat obtuse as presented, but it's important. You may want to read the complete article at: http://energy.einnews.com/article.php?vid=+x2b597NdxwRpLLZ&v=61763EAgzp8B2Cz/6DLTbIETWb2WFzdWM.

A summary of the situation is as follows:

Rare earths are chemical compounds of a group of chemical elements known as rare earth elements. They are used as raw materials in the production of modern technological devices. Some of these devices are stealth fighter jets, digital cameras, computer hard drives, wind turbine magnets, solar panels, hybrid and electric car batteries, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and catalytic converters.

We previously mined much of what was needed here in the US. However the mining is difficult and labor-intensive, and production slowly moved to China, where labor costs were significantly lower. At present, the US produces essentially no rare earths and all such material required as raw materials for the above-mentioned technological devices must be imported, usually from China.

The Chinese, recognizing that they have a monopoly on the rare earth market, have decreased exports, which automatically raises prices. They presumably do this as a strategy for obtaining US taxpayer dollars, which the US government uses as subsidies for US production of modern technological devices.

In addition to this Chinese technique of extracting more dollars from the American taxpayer, through the US federal government subsidies, the US is placed in a more vulnerable military position by market imposed restrictions in the manufacture of essential military hardware, some of which is listed above.

We have previously faced similar situations. Prior to World War I, most chemical production was in Germany. At the onset of the war, the US was deprived of imports of those chemicals required for the war effort, and it required some time and effort to establish any significant chemical production here in the US. For this reason, the military has defined some essentials materials as "strategic". For example, crude oil is a strategic material, for which reason the military has a stockpile.


While I am opposed to most of the operations of big government, it is the federal government responsibility to take action for the protection of the American public against foreign powers. This includes maintaining sufficient military power to combat any physical invasion, and that power is likely to require sufficient military hardware, which is produced using rare earths as a raw material.

The obvious action that must be taken by the US government to neutralize the Chinese initiative is to immediately declare rare earths "strategic" materials and impose a significant import duty, such that the price automatically rises to a level where US mining companies can again justify a productive position and thereby guarantee independence from foreign sources to the advantage of controlling our ability to produce military hardware.

The Chinese reaction to this will be to allow increased exports from China, which will tend to lower rare earth prices and keep production in China. However, as the Chinese take such action which will lower prices, we must continue to increase import duties to justify US mining companies to produce in the US.

This program will be difficult for the Obama Administration to swallow, since it is contradictory to its efforts to redistribute wealth on a worldwide basis, including giving Chinese miners continued employment. However I am not concerned with Chinese miners. They can find something else to do. Meanwhile, I want to have a strong military, including hardware, to protect the American public from foreign invasion and also to create jobs for American miners.