China monopolizes over 80 percent of critical raw battery minerals used in U.S. military equipment, posing a serious national security threat, new research has found.
Beijing’s “brute force economics” utilizes a bevy of non-market practices, including price manipulation, export dumping, and intellectual property theft, to build a dominant supply chain of batteries that are essential in cars, cellphones, and U.S. military drones, according to a July 21 report from Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington D.C.-based think tank.
“In a hot war or even a cold one, Beijing could also weaponize the battery dependence of economic sectors ranging from cars to computers, communications, and construction,” the report said….
China’s Battery Mineral Monopoly Poses National Security Risk: Report
