Why send Chinese soldiers to America’s shores to fight an expensive war when it is much easier, and less costly, for Beijing to simply buy US properties near sensitive military installations and purchase businesses that produce products critical to US national security? When China began modernizing its military a couple of decades ago, it started stealing advanced technology from the West and reverse engineered what it needed. It saved on cost and time by helping the communist giant skip generations of development. Now that it on par technologically with the West in many areas, China is taking things a step further.
The Morning Star Ranch in Texas is 140,000 acres, located near Laughlin Air Force Base, and close to a sensitive US border area. It also is owned by a communist who is a former Chinese military official named Sun Guangxin. Sun planned to build a wind and solar farm on the acreage. At first glance it may appear to be an environmentally friendly project without security implications. Upon taking a closer look at this former Chinese military official’s plan, it reveals what he really intended. The project “footprint” represents a potential threat to every American. Sun aimed to hook his solar/wind farm project directly into the Texas power grid. He would have succeeded, too, if not for nearby property owners and members of the Devil’s River Conservancy who were concerned about the environmental impact of the project. Unfortunately, this type of behavior is not an isolated incident.
China has for years been maneuvering its way into American businesses from Hollywood to Wall Street and the defense sector. China is the world’s largest producer of rare earth elements (REE). Last year it processed 140,000 metric tons of the 240,000 produced globally. REE are the 17 rare earth minerals critical to making cell phones vibrate, precision guidance systems for our military weaponry, hospital test equipment, and just about every modern convenience requiring specialized conductive or magnetic material. The United States is wholly dependent on foreign sources for the processing of heavy rare earths (HREE) and very highly dependent on non-US sources for light rare earths (LREE). No firm in the US currently supplies the HREE market.
China over the last 30 years has sought to control the world ‘s supply of REE. Today it produces 95% of the market and all the REE materials critical to our national defense. Recently a Texas mining company announced plans to build a pilot REE processing facility with the intent of developing a full-scale production facility. It sounded like good news. What the mainstream media overlooked was that only few states away in California a Chinese firm, Shenghe Resources Holding Company, bought about 10% of the United States’ only REE mine at Mountain Pass. Each year the American mine ships about 50,000 metric tons to China for processing before US companies buy back the refined product. The Texas-owned test plant, in comparison, currently is producing only 220 pounds annually. The Defense Department under the Trump Administration began to work on the issue. Little has been done since that time.
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DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Friday, she presents key updates on China.
Illustration: Pixabay