In April, China imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements, so that American production paralyzed in dozens of critical sectors. Ford temporarily closed the production lines while European suppliers closed the entire factories. In one calculated movement, Beijing showed its strength to hump the West.
This economic warfare represents decades of strategic planning. While America slept, China dropped the market on materials that are essential for modern civilization. By controlling 90% of the processing capacity of rare earth, it dictates the prices and decides who receives stocks. The periodic table became their ultimate economic weapon.
But weapons can be made outdated by superior innovation. American scientists discovered that combining iron, the fourth most abundant element of the planet, with atmospheric nitrogen makes a connection more magnetic than everything produced by China. This breakthrough does not only correspond to Chinese materials; It surpasses them.
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China’s rare earth monopoly began to form in the 1980s. Beijing has investigated the global markets with the magnets below. When Western companies surrender the market share, China strengthens control, consolidating processing facilities and mining activities. By 2024, almost any electric vehicle engine, wind turbine generator and advanced electronic devices could depend on materials that Beijing switches off as desired.
Mine with rare earth in Baiyun’bo or Bayan Obo. Baiyun’ebo or Bayan Obo is a mining city in Inner Mongolia in China. The mines are one of the biggest deposits of rare earth metals found in the world. (Bert van Dijk/Getty images)
The April export restrictions have uncovered this vulnerability with surgical precision. Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant first felt the impact. Explorer’s production was stopped in May for seven days, while managers clambed to obtain export licenses from Chinese officials. European manufacturers suffered even worse disturbances.
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Soon the crisis had spread further than cars. Aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and defense contractors all discovered their dependence on materials that Beijing could arm without warning. This represented the highlight of China’s three decades to put critical mineral markets in the corner, while American companies gave every three -month profit and policymakers priority to cheap consumer goods over strategic independence.
China’s rare Earth Tech Obsession entanglals the American resident, while CCP wants to maintain stranglehold
Although China tightened his grip, American researchers from the University of Minnesota had solved a puzzle that scientists had frustrated since the 1950s. Professor Jian-Ping Wang spent almost ten years perfecting techniques to synthesize iron nitride magnets of the most common elements on earth. His breakthrough, published in 2010, finally explained how combining iron with nitrogen can create a material with magnetization that can create everything that China produces from rare earths.
The physics is remarkable. IJzernitride retains full magnetization at 200 degrees Celsius, which exceeds the temperature capacity of all magnetic connections, except that of the Scarcest and most expensive critical elements. The most important thing is that the raw materials come from sources that cannot monopolize nation: the iron ore deposits of Minnesota and atmospheric nitrogen. Iron Nitride represents something that China cannot replicate – American innovation powered by scientific curiosity instead of the industrial policy of the state – and reduces our national security and economic vulnerabilities and strengthens domestic production capacity.
But the commercialization of this breakthrough requires the same strategic commitment that China has demonstrated while building dominance with rare earth. Beijing spent hundreds of billions of dollars for three decades and accepted losses to achieve market control. America needs comparable federal action to use iron nitride technology before China recognizes the threat and flood markets with under the precious rare earths to kill American innovation in its cradle.
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The question is whether policy makers will act with the same strategic patience that China has demonstrated while building a rare-earth dominance, or whether they allow a different generation of American industrial capacity to migrate abroad in the pursuit of cheap imports that mask dangerous dependencies.
The periodic table does not have to stay China’s weapon. American science has found the antidote. The only remaining question is whether America has the strategic will to use it.
