Not hard to find, but hard to properly leverage.

This is the result of a multi-year effort by China to insulate themselves from very specific retaliatory measures i.e. leverage the USA had over them, but not any longer.

it was patently obvious from the beginning of his "I want Canada and Greenland RIGHT NOW!" phase.

I’ll be honest, I missed it purely because of his verbal diarrhoea.

China spent the last 2 decades investing in infrastructure, energy, heavy industry and manufacturing while we were........ doing what exactly? Selling smartphone apps to each other, pumping crypto, gig economy and letting private equity gut our services?

How many years does it take to get a processing plant up and running? Longer than Donald has to live, I'll bet.

Yes, resource availability isn't the issue, and "just invest more" has some massive hurdles:

• China has over 25,000 patents in the field of rare earths
• China doesn't have the strict environmental-protection regulations like much of the rest of the world. It keeps the price very low, but at great cost to its environment from toxic run-off and the like
• Complex, expensive solvent extraction processes require extensive experience that China is well ahead of the rest of the world on
• China has a highly integrated supply chain from mining to finished product manufacturing

All these mean any processing outside of China is going to be incredibly expensive and competitively unprofitable. It's not impossible to do, and removing dependence from China is probably worth it, but it's going to take a lot of capital and time to achieve and sustain.

Sure, but like, they sound rare. It's right in the name. That's why dumbass Trumpo behaves like China is hoarding rare jewels from him and cries for Mommy to do something.

Can’t we just do tariffs that cripple our already dwindling industrial capacity and give tax cuts to rich people who don’t need them?

The reality is that China is about the only country willing to process the rare earth minerals because of how incredibly toxic it is to the local populace. Many countries could choose to invest in processing plants but are unwilling to subject their citizens to the cancers they invariably cause.

Maybe that's too generous. The wealthy don't want them around, and it's bad business to get your labor force unable to work.

Invest in local processing plants.

Do you want environmental degradation and pollution with processing rare earths? Because that's the main reason why many countries avoid doing it because it will be met with opposition from their electorates.

If only we knew how to... I dunno... invest in something other than Lithium. Something ubiquitous and cheap... like sodium.

Nahhhh

True. IIRC during his first administration he backed the U.S. out of the international treaty that governed minig ocean floor rare earth deposits because the U.S. didn't have a dispropotionate amount of power compared to other treaty signatories.