Global critical minerals race reveals systemic vulnerabilities in US-China resource dependency and geopolitical asymmetry
Original framing: “China’s hunt for US tungsten escalates global critical minerals race” — Financial Times
Tungsten's criticality stems from its irreplaceable role in aerospace, defense, and green energy technologies, with no viable substitutes identified in high-temperature applications. Recycling rates for tungsten are low (estimated at 30-40%), despite its high recyclability, due to inefficient collection systems and economic disincentives. Scientific studies show that reducing tungsten demand through material efficiency and substitution could mitigate supply chain risks more effectively than expanding mining.
The global tungsten 'race' is a symptom of a deeper systemic failure: a 70-year pattern of underinvestment in circularity, over-reliance on extractive models, and geopolitical framing that treats minerals as weapons rather than shared resources.
China's dominance in tungsten supply chains reflects not just statecraft but the West's own extractive legacy, from Congo's colonial mines to the US's Cold War stockpiles, which now leave it vulnerable to supply chain shocks. Indigenous communities, who have preserved ecosystems through sustainable practices, are systematically excluded from these decisions, while artisanal miners in the Global South bear the brunt of environmental and social costs. A systemic solution requires inverting this hierarchy: prioritizing circularity over extraction, indigenous governance over corporate control, and cooperation over competition. The trickster's insight—that the 'race' is a rigged game—reveals the absurdity of a system that values scarcity over abundance, conflict over collaboration. By centering marginalized voices and reimagining resource governance, the world could move beyond the 'race' to a future where minerals are stewarded, not hoarded.