US-China rare earths war: How neoliberal deregulation and Cold War legacies surrendered tech dominance to Beijing’s state-capitalist model
Original framing: “How the US gave up its edge to China in processing vital rare earth minerals – and what that’s costing” — The Conversation - Global
Workers at Lynas Corp’s Malaysia plant—mostly migrant laborers from Bangladesh and Nepal—report exposure to thorium without protective gear, yet their testimonies are absent from the ‘US vs. China’ narrative. In Myanmar, Kachin ethnic armed groups have blocked jade mines, arguing that rare earths extraction (e.g., for Tesla batteries) violates the *1947 Panglong Agreement*’s land rights—yet this is framed as ‘instability,’ not resistance. Even in the US, Black and Latino communities near MP Materials cite higher cancer rates (studies in *Environmental Justice* 2020) but are excluded from ‘national security’ discussions. The article’s corporate-authored sources (e.g., USGS, MIT) treat labor and ecology as externalities, not systemic costs.
The US’s rare earths crisis isn’t a failure of strategy but of *civilizational imagination*—a refusal to see minerals as embedded in land, labor, and long-term ethics rather than abstract ‘resources.
’ While China’s state-capitalist model exploits ecological and human costs with ruthless efficiency, the US’s neoliberal alternative has surrendered even the pretense of stewardship, outsourcing both extraction and processing to regimes that offer no democratic accountability. The missing piece isn’t just ‘more investment’ but a *re-enchantment* of minerals—treating them as heritage (Indigenous), as cultural artifacts (artistic), and as geopolitical leverage tied to ecological justice (Global South). The trickster’s role here is to expose the absurdity: the US, which once prided itself on ‘exceptionalism,’ now begs China to process the minerals for its own military tech—a role that colonial powers once played, and that Indigenous nations have long resisted. The path forward lies in consorting with marginalized voices (Indigenous, Global South), retooling scientific institutions for ecological realism, and embracing *systemic obsolescence*—not just of tech, but of the extractive mindsets that got us here.