The United States recognized decades ago that the Chinese Communist Party was subsidizing a vast expansion of Chinese mining and processing capacities to manipulate mineral and metal markets and dominate global manufacturing supply chains.
As early as 1980, with the adoption of the National Materials and Minerals Policy, Research, and Development Act, Congress declared an urgent priority “to strengthen materials research, development, production capability, and performance of the United States.”
Yet, in the past half-century, domestic manufacturers—including in the nation’s defense industry—have only become more reliant on imported minerals and processed metals, beholden to CCP market manipulation, as documented by the U.S. Geological Survey in January….