The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s China deal: rare earths pave the green road to militarisation | Editorial
IIt is an irony that minerals needed to save the planet can help destroy it. The elements of the rare earths, the mineral dorsal spine of wind turbines and electric vehicles, are now the price of a geopolitical arms race. The trade agreement between Washington and Beijing restores China’s rare land expeditions to the United States, which had been suspended in retaliation against Donald Trump’s prices. Behind the boastful, there was an awareness in Washington that these are critical entries for the United States. They are necessary not only by American icons such as Ford and Boeing, but for its fighter planes, its missile guide systems and its satellite communications.
This understanding suggests that Washington will reduce some of its countermeasures once Beijing will reproduce the delivery of rare earths. The paradox is that to reduce its dependence on China, the United States must depend on Beijing a little longer. It is not yet decoupling; It is a postponement. This, however, may not last. Trump signed a decree to stimulate the production of critical minerals, which encourages the faster granting of permits for operating and treatment projects. He looks at Ukraine and the underground riches of Greenland to break dependence on China.
The West has become so dependent on a single geopolitical rival for such materials – materials which it once extracted and refined at the national level before closing operations – due to costs and environmental concerns. China, for its part, has dominated the world’s treatment for rare earths. He has already used this market power – especially against Japan in 2010. It is difficult not to think that it is a strategic complacency that led the West to count so strongly on China for key minerals.
The NATO summit of this month saw the West pushing to reindustrialize by rearming itself. These are also long -term extractive ambitions in the Northern worldwide. Canada, a break with critical mineral deposits, says its resurgence of the planned mines will be a new basis for the solidarity of the Alliance. This month, the EU called for strategic reserves of rare land “to avoid disturbances of the supply chain and the economic blackmail of China” – highlighting their importance not only for electric vehicles but for the defense and aerospace industries. “Resilience” means digging more deeply at home and controlling extraction abroad.
The same minerals we need for Net Zero are justified in terms of zero sum rivalry. It is uncomfortable that “green growth” and militarism have merged into a single political framework, collapse the distinction between ecological transition and the accumulation of weapons. A magnet for an electric car is also a magnet for a hypersonic missile. And during this time, the human and ecological toll continues to increase – largely out of sight and out of synchronized with the idea of environmental sustainability.
A goalkeeper dispatched last week from Baotou, the capital of the rare land of China, found evidence of toxic ponds, poisoned soil and demolished the “cancer villages” – the hidden cost of our digital and electric age. Framing this as an annoying necessity is likely to repeat past errors. For nations rich in minerals, the sharp increase in global demand brings opportunities. But as a UN report noted this year, without solid institutions and guarantees, this risks a familiar fate: corruption, conflicts and environmental ruins.
Today’s race for critical minerals should not see the promises of the responsible supply give way to a familiar logic – extract first, moralized later.
