America is waking up to a hard truth: Beijing has quietly been building choke points in the global economy that give it outsized leverage over our manufacturing and defense supply chains. In April 2025 China slapped export controls on critical rare earth elements and other materials that Washington and our industries desperately need, a blunt reminder that economic interdependence can be weaponized.
Those controls matter because China still dominates processing and production of rare earths and components like magnets and certain semiconductor materials, meaning Beijing can strangle supply lines with the flick of a pen. The reality is embarrassing: decades of offshoring and appeasement left the United States dependent on a strategic rival for inputs that power missiles, EVs, and advanced electronics.
Meanwhile, the business establishment in Washington is shrieking about the very policies meant to protect national security, begging the administration to roll back hard-won export controls that blunt Chinese access to sensitive technologies. Major trade groups and corporate lobbyists insist the “Affiliates Rule” and related restrictions are hurting commerce — but their complaints read like pleas to return to a vulnerable status quo.
Washington’s response has been tough but uneven: the administration moved quickly with steep tariffs, and Beijing answered with its own 34 percent levies and company-specific punishments that signal a long game of economic coercion. This tit-for-tat shows Beijing is willing to endure pain to reshape global supply chains to its advantage, and it exposes how badly the United States underestimated the strategic consequences of globalization.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that America is finally starting to move beyond talk and toward real alternatives—partnering with allies and securing critical minerals outside China’s control. On October 20, 2025 the United States and Australia sealed a major critical-minerals agreement aimed at diversifying supplies and undercutting Beijing’s leverage, the sort of bold alliance-building conservatives have been urging for years.
Still, we must be honest with ourselves: export controls and alliances alone won’t win this. China’s strategic industrial policy and heavy investment in domestic chipmaking and processing mean it can push for self-sufficiency and build domestic alternatives, a fact our policymakers ignore at their peril. The smarter conservative position is clear — combine muscle (tariffs and export controls) with a domestic industrial strategy that incentivizes American mines, refineries, and fabs to come back online.
Patriots should demand no less than a national mobilization to reclaim our supply chains and protect our sovereignty. That means cutting the dependency that weakens our bargaining power, supporting Republican-led incentives for domestic production, and refusing to bow to corporate lobbyists who put profits over national security. America can and must fight smarter, build stronger, and make sure we never again let a strategic rival hold all the cards.
