📊Executive Summary

The article discusses China's strategic use of rare earth elements as tools of economic leverage in the ongoing U.S.-China trade and tech standoff. It highlights how China's tightening of export controls on rare earths is disrupting critical industries such as electric vehicles and semiconductors, creating significant vulnerabilities for U.S. supply chains. The article emphasizes the need for the U.S. to rebuild its rare earth ecosystem, which will take decades of investment and policy reform. This situation poses immediate risks for procurement teams reliant on these materials, as the bottlenecks in supply chains are likely to affect lead times and pricing....