Remember that periodic table you ignored in high school? The one with all those unpronounceable elements at the bottom, like yttrium, and praseodymium? Surprise — they're actually important, and China's got them all locked up tighter than a missile silo.
As reported in CNBC, China just slapped export controls on seven rare earth elements that are absolutely crucial for things like fighter jets, submarines, and basically every piece of advanced military hardware the U.S. needs. They're also found in smartphones, computers, digital cameras, flat-screen TVs, refrigerators, LED light bulbs, electric cars, gas-burning cars, wind turbines, rechargeable batteries, MRI machines, X-ray machines, cigarette lighters, and the optical fiber cables that connect everyone to the Internet.
Probably just a coincidence that China is ghosting America right after Commander Deal-Master Trump's brilliant strategy of antagonizing the one nation that controls rare earth's global supply chain. Meanwhile, China's churning out advanced weapons five to six times faster than we are.
Our military brass is sweating bullets because America can't process these materials domestically. But don't worry! Pentagon Pete, sober genius that he is, will have a complete supply chain ready by 2027. Let's just ignore the fact that dysprosium — a critical rare earth element found in car motors, hard disk drives, and nuclear reactor control rods — comes from the Greek "dysprositos," meaning hard to get. Maybe they can ask the Chinese nicely to pause World War III until then.
Previously:
• Meet the rare earth elements that make modern life possible
• Massive lode of rare-earth metals found in Japanese waters
