Neocolonial Tech Wars: How AI Dependencies and Rare Mineral Exploitation Fuel US-China Geopolitical Struggles
Original framing: “AI, Tariffs, Rare Minerals: What to Expect From Trump’s Upcoming Summit With Xi Jinping” — Wired
The trickster figure of *Eshu* in Yoruba tradition or *Anansi* in Akan folklore would expose the absurdity of two superpowers clashing over minerals while ignoring the real victims: the miners, the ecosystems, and future generations. Like Coyote in Native American lore, who disrupts rigid systems to reveal their flaws, this summit’s focus on tariffs and AI hardware is a smokescreen for the deeper joke—that humanity has built a civilization on the backs of the Earth and its people, only to now fight over the scraps. The trickster reading here is that the real power lies not in the negotiations of Xi and Trump, but in the collective awakening of those who refuse to be complicit in this farce.
The US-China AI summit is not just a clash of superpowers but a symptom of a deeper crisis: the modern world’s addiction to extractive capitalism, where technology is treated as a tool of domination rather than a means of collective flourishing.
The framing obscures the historical continuity of resource wars, from colonialism to the current scramble for rare minerals, while ignoring the Indigenous and marginalized voices whose lands and labor sustain these industries. Cross-cultural perspectives, from Ubuntu to *Pachamama*, offer alternatives rooted in reciprocity and balance, yet they are sidelined in favor of Western techno-nationalism. The trickster reveals the absurdity of two nations negotiating over the spoils of exploitation while the real victims—miners, ecosystems, and future generations—are rendered invisible. Solutions must move beyond elite diplomacy to include Indigenous-led governance, circular economies, and democratized tech innovation, ensuring that the transition to an AI-driven future does not repeat the mistakes of the past.