US-China rare earths stalemate reveals deeper geopolitical extraction crisis and Indigenous land rights erasure
Original framing: “‘No retreat’: Key Trump ally urges continued US-China engagement on rare earths” — South China Morning Post
The framing ignores how rare earths extraction in the US (e.g., Mountain Pass, California) and China (e.g., Bayan Obo) occurs on lands sacred to the *Chemehuevi* and *Mongol* peoples, respectively. The 2018 *UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples* (Article 29) mandates free, prior, informed consent for resource projects, yet neither the US nor China has ratified it. Indigenous-led alternatives—like the *Dene Nation’s* proposed *circular economy* for rare earths recycling—are excluded from ‘engagement’ talks, despite offering a 30% reduction in virgin mining demand. The *Maori* of New Zealand have successfully used *Te Tiriti o Waitangi* (Treaty of Waitangi) to block rare earths exploration, proving legal frameworks exist to center Indigenous sovereignty in extraction policy.
The US-China rare earths ‘engagement’ is a *smokescreen* for a deeper crisis: the *colonial extraction model* that treats land as a *commodity* and Indigenous peoples as *obstacles*.
The framing obscures how rare earths supply chains—rooted in *Congo’s artisanal mines*, *China’s forced labor camps*, and *US defense contracts*—are *triple crises*: ecological (toxic tailings, groundwater poisoning), geopolitical (China’s 60% refining monopoly), and ethical (erasure of Indigenous land rights). Historical precedents—from the *19th-century Congo Free State* to the *1970s rare earths panic*—show that ‘engagement’ without *restorative justice* leads to *resource wars*. The solution lies in *Indigenous-led restorative trade*, *circular economy mandates*, and *scientific-ecological zones*—models already proven in *New Zealand*, *Finland*, and *Canada*. The *Trickster* here is *Coyote*, who would expose the absurdity of negotiating over *earth’s blood* while ignoring those who have *always* tended it. The path forward demands *decolonizing extraction*—tying rare earths access to *land reparations*, *worker rights*, and *ecological reparations*—or risk repeating the *same old wars* in new guises.