Moolenaar and Nunn in National Review: China's Mineral Monopoly Is America's Achilles' Heel

Select Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Congressman Zach Nunn (R-IA) have written an op-ed in National Review about China's monopoly of critical minerals and its threat to everyday Americans. The op-ed follows the committee's report, Predatory Pricing: How the Chinese Communist Party Manipulates Global Mineral Prices To Maintain Its Dominance and a subsequent hearing of the same name.

China’s Mineral Monopoly Is America’s Achilles’ Heel 

National Review

January 8, 2026

At the end of last year, China turned its rare-earth export controls on and off like a light switch, imposing sweeping restrictions and then suspending them in November after President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping reached a trade framework during a meeting in South Korea.

That framework has provided a year-long reprieve, but the Chinese government has made its position clear: Critical minerals are not commodities to be traded but leverage to be used against the United States and our allies at the negotiating table. Until we solve this dependency, the Chinese will weaponize it against us.

This is a consistent threat the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been communicating for over a decade — across the industries it seeks to dominate and the infrastructure it plans to control. It is a playbook we have seen China execute many times before: Subsidize domestic champions, manipulate markets, seize critical chokepoints, then leverage that control to extract concessions.

Rare-earth elements and critical minerals power everything from fertilizer to fighter jets. These materials are vital to both our national economy and our defense readiness — and when China suspended rare-earth exports in October, American manufacturers immediately felt the pinch. Prices spiked. Orders were delayed. Defense contractors scrambled.

In agriculture, farmers across the country depend on steady supplies of phosphates and potash to maintain high yields and global competitiveness. After hearing concerns from producers about growing supply chain vulnerabilities, we worked with colleagues to secure a commitment from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to add these minerals to the U.S. critical minerals list.

More tangibly, every smartphone, electric vehicle, and artillery shell requires access to materials China controls, or else they cannot be produced. We’ve built our entire society around these fundamental elements that the CCP has clearly indicated it is willing to withhold to extract economic concessions in trade negotiations.

This did not happen by accident. In 1992, Deng Xiaoping declared, “There is oil in the Middle East, there is rare earth in China.” What followed was a systematic campaign to monopolize global supply chains.

Consider Magnequench, a former General Motors subsidiary that produced rare-earth magnets. In 1995, Chinese firms bought the company and promised to keep its Indiana plant open for at least five years. Five years and one day later, the plant was closed, workers were fired, and production was moved to China. This pattern repeated itself across the industry: American mines were shuttered, and China consolidated control.

The numbers tell the story. China now has 70 percent of global rare-earth mining inside its borders, 85 to 90 percent of mineral refining, and more than 90 percent of magnet production. A Select Committee on China investigation highlighted how Beijing provided roughly $57 billion in subsidies to its mining champions and prohibited them from publishing prices that deviated from the government’s wishes. When higher lithium prices in 2021 and 2022 threatened to give rise to American competitors, Chinese officials intervened, and prices dropped immediately.

Much like in World War II, we must embark on a national effort to revitalize our manufacturing base. The Defense Production Act gives us the authority to prioritize domestic mineral production. The Pentagon is already working with companies like MP Materials — which operates America’s only currently producing rare-earth mine and is expanding domestic refining capacity — to scale U.S. supply chains.

Unprecedented cooperation between the government and private sector to restore a fair market in the face of CCP economic aggression will be critical to success. We must also streamline permitting, make long-term procurement guarantees through a Strategic Resources Reserve, and have stronger allied integration with partners, including Australia and Japan.

The facts on the ground right now are bleak: China is using its monopoly as leverage across industries and spheres of competition. But we also know that nothing can outpace or outperform American ingenuity and innovation at its fullest strength.

When do we know we’ve won? When fertilizer prices in Iowa and Michigan aren’t dependent on the political mood in Beijing. When our defense industrial base operates independently of CCP supply chains. And when our allies need critical minerals, they call American producers.

We didn’t win the Cold War by depending on Soviet steel. We won’t win this century by depending on Chinese minerals. If Beijing controls the inputs, it controls the outcomes. America cannot afford that dependence. Not economically. And not strategically.