NEWYou tin present perceive to Fox News articles!
Since the COVID pandemic, Americans person had a clang people connected the value of uncommon world elements and recognized the unpleasant world that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has a adjacent stranglehold connected their mining and processing. Practically everything we manufacture successful the modern world, from combatant jets to aesculapian instrumentality to cameras, present requires immoderate quantity of these materials, and we are astir wholly astatine the mercy of the PRC for them.
Recognizing that this dependency is simply a imaginable nationalist information crisis, President Donald Trump has directed an all-of-government inaugural called "Project Vault" to support the American radical from contiguous shocks portion gathering up our quality to proviso ourselves successful the future.
The Chinese authorities has shown itself precise consenting to usage its uncommon earths vantage arsenic blackmail against the United States arsenic good arsenic manufacturing allies specified arsenic Japan. At the extremity of President Trump’s archetypal term, China issued veiled threats astir limiting their exports to retaliate for U.S. tariffs connected Huawei. Those threats became realities past twelvemonth arsenic China announced export controls and past outright bans connected the export of uncommon world elements to overseas militaries. When President Trump issued tariff threats of his own, the PRC backed down, but the standard of our vulnerability was clear.
MOST SHOCKING EXAMPLES OF CHINESE ESPIONAGE UNCOVERED BY THE US THIS YEAR: 'JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG'
To beryllium sure, overmuch of this occupation has been of our ain making. After World War II, astatine the dawn of electronics manufacturing, the United States was ascendant successful uncommon earths, which were chiefly extracted and processed astatine the Mountain Pass installation successful California. In 1980, nether President Jimmy Carter, however, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission placed immoderate uncommon earths nether the aforesaid rules arsenic radioactive materials, severely restricting their extraction and processing and making adjacent these constricted activities prohibitively costly successful the United States.
The resulting diminution successful accumulation was accelerated by the Mountain Pass wastewater spill successful 1996, which resulted successful the closure of that installation successful 2002 connected biology grounds. Additional projects were not developed arsenic permitting times mean 29 years successful America and truthful would person been economically unviable. Mountain Pass lone resumed operations successful 2017, but now, with the enactment of the Trump administration, volition grow its facilities successful 2026. But it volition beryllium a agelong and hard conflict to regain the vantage America erstwhile squandered successful the sanction of clime purism.
Meanwhile, China seized the vantage with a overmuch much permissive regulatory and permitting situation that allowed them to seizure arsenic overmuch arsenic 70% of extraction and 90% of processing of uncommon earths. During his archetypal term, President Trump started righting this disproportionate vantage with Executive Order 13817, which identified 35 cardinal elements and laid retired a strategy to unafraid a acceptable proviso of them. In 2020, the President declared a nationalist exigency regarding uncommon earths, directing an interagency process to summation home production.
After President Trump’s re-election, his medication has taken further enactment to alleviate China’s staggering vantage done agreements with producing allies specified arsenic Australia that volition springiness america a overmuch much unafraid and reliable proviso concatenation than buying from Communist China. Now, Project Vault is designed to further insulate America from dependence connected the PRC for these captious materials.
AMERICA IS THE SOLE SUPERPOWER AGAIN. HERE'S HOW TRUMP SURPRISED THE WORLD
Modeled connected the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, established successful 1975 to support the U.S. from the vigor shocks caused by the 1973 Arab lipid embargo, Project Vault establishes a stockpile of uncommon earths for the usage of the U.S. subject and backstage assemblage successful the lawsuit that China cuts disconnected supplies.
In addition, the medication is continuing the hard enactment of deregulation and permitting betterment that volition let American companies to statesman to extract and process uncommon earths again present astatine home, unburdened by Biden medication "environmental justice" efforts specified arsenic the Justice40 Initiative that prevented them from taking meaningful enactment successful this space.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
In bid to antagonistic the PRC predatorially preserving its uncommon earths monopoly, arsenic a substance of nationalist security, President Trump has directed the Export-Import Bank to enactment Project Vault with a $10 cardinal dollar indebtedness that volition enactment some the constitution of the stockpile and warrant capable caller American-controlled uncommon world accumulation astatine a complaint that volition guarantee our defence industries are nary longer astatine the mercy of PRC proviso chains.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
ExIm has established a public-private concern called Vault Company to oversee the task and guarantee payer wealth is responsibly invested truthful that the American extraction and processing assemblage tin beryllium rapidly re-established and render further concern unnecessary.
As such, ExIm is an indispensable nationalist information instrumentality for repairing each the harm China has done successful its run to country the marketplace connected uncommon earths and usage their dominance to blackmail America. Congress should truthful determination swiftly to reauthorize the Bank to guarantee that not lone Project Vault succeeds, but besides that ExIm tin proceed to enactment President Trump’s efforts to support the American radical harmless from Chinese aggression.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM VICTORIA COATES
Victoria Coates is Vice President of Heritage’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy.











English (CA) ·
English (US) ·
Spanish (MX) ·