Employees work at a factory that produces lithium battery for export in Huaibei, China, on June 11, 2024. STR/AFP via Getty Images
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.
