US-China trade: will Biden’s call to break free of China for rare earths help counter opposition to US mines?

Merely mentioning China and calling to oppose its supply-chain dominance helps Washington push back against domestic opposition to controversial mining operations, according to Chinese experts

Strategic minerals such as lithium are becoming increasingly essential, and Chinese companies control much of the global supply

3-MIN READ3-MIN

The administration of US President Joe Biden is giving out millions of grant dollars to help create a “fully domestic supply chain” for certain rare earths. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:30am, 25 Feb 2022Updated: 5:15am, 25 Feb 2022

Recent remarks by US President Joe Biden about countering China’s dominance in the supply chain of lithium and rare earths serve as an attempt to win over opposition to new American mines, according to Chinese experts.

During a virtual event this week with business and government leaders from California – a state with a rich variety of minerals – the US president touted his administration’s latest efforts in several new initiatives to mine and process strategic minerals that are becoming increasingly essential in the production of clean energy.

“China controls most of the global market in these minerals,” Biden said at the Tuesday event. “We can’t build a future that’s made in America if we, ourselves, are dependent on China for the materials that power the products of today and tomorrow.

“And this is not anti-China or anti anything else; it’s pro-American.”

Despite the Biden administration’s commitment to reshore the clean-energy supply chain, mining projects in the US have long faced opposition from indigenous groups, labour leaders, local communities and environmental groups over concerns such as pollution and labour protection.

In the world of US domestic politics, ‘just say China’ seems to work when it comes to governmental support to [mining] operations

Zha Daojiong, Peking University

And Zha Daojiong, a professor with the School of International Studies at Peking University, said that the US’ highlighting of the dependence on China, regardless of its veracity, is partly aimed at countering that opposition to extractive reshoring.

“The political-business campaign to break free of a reliance on China for lithium and other materials has been going on for almost two decades,” Zha said.