The working group will be responsible for producing legislation and promoting awareness to combat the CCP’s dominance of critical minerals.
A bipartisan working group to counter China’s dominance in critical mineral supply chains was formed by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the panel said on June 18.
The Critical Minerals Policy Working Group will be responsible for producing legislation and promoting awareness via committee events to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) dominance in critical minerals.
“Critical minerals are the building blocks of everything from basic consumer goods to advanced military technology. America’s reliance on the Chinese Communist Party’s control of the critical mineral supply chain would quickly become an existential vulnerability in the event of a conflict,” Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), the committee’s chairman, said in a statement.
“The CCP has already weaponized its monopoly on some minerals by imposing export restrictions on rare earth elements like gallium, germanium, and graphite, as well as mineral processing equipment.”
Mr. Moolenaar and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the committee’s ranking Democrat member, announced the working group’s formation. Mr. Moolenaar said he set up the group to “help Congress declare independence from CCP-controlled supply chains.”
The group will start by basing its work on a December 2023 report from the committee titled “Reset, Prevent, Build: A Strategy to Win America’s Economic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party.” The report made nearly 150 recommendations to Congress, outlining a strategy to “fundamentally reset the United States’ economic and technological competition” with the Chinese communist regime.
“These recommendations will reset the terms of our relationship with [China], prevent the flow of American capital and technology from supporting its military advances and human rights abuses, and build collective economic resilience in concert with our allies and partners while ensuring American leadership for decades to come,” the committee said in a statement at the time.
The group will focus on increasing transparency about the nation’s dependence on the critical mineral supply chain and “develop a package of proposed investments, regulatory reforms, and tax incentives to reduce that dependency,” according to a June 18 statement.
By Aaron Pan
