Europe’s Achilles’ heel: how rare earths leave the EU wide open to economic blackmail from China

In recent years, rare earth elements have become the focal point of renewed competition between the world’s major powers. These materials are crucial to the manufacture of all manner of products, ranging from weapons to medical products, AI hardware and cars.

In this new panorama, the United States and Europe are at a disadvantage, as China controls as much as 90% of the global trade in rare earths. This is largely because it has been quietly but continuously promoting the extraction and refining of these…

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