Posted on October 20, 2025
Chinese restrictions on rare earth mineral exports could have detrimental impacts on the U.S. defense industry, according to Sen. Todd Young.
Rare earths are critical to defense products such as artificial intelligence microchips and parts of the newest U.S. stealth bombers. Mr. Young, Indian Republican, says Beijing’s dominance over the processing of the materials is emerging as a key aspect of U.S.-China competition.
“This competition is currently shaping our lives in fundamental ways,” he said in an exclusive “Threat Status” Influencers video interview with The Washington Times. “It is poised to shape our children’s lives in even more fundamental ways, economically, in terms of our national security and every other facet of life.”
His comments in the video published Thursday come amid rising concern within the U.S. national security community over what analysts describe as a Chinese Communist Party campaign reaching back decades to control the global rare earths market.
“The Middle East has its oil; China has rare earths,” then-communist leader Deng Xiaoping stated in 1992. Deng said rare earth elements are “of extremely important strategic significance.” He vowed that China would develop policies and methods that “make the fullest use of the advantages of our rare earth resources.”
Today, technological advances have made China’s 80% share of the world’s reserves of 17 rare earth metals a valuable strategic tool.
Mr. Young, a former Marine who’s emerged as a leader on policy targeting nuanced aspects of U.S.-China competition, says he’s focused on countering the dominance Beijing has achieved over rare earths since the early 1990s.
