Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Jun 3: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has raised concerns over China’s dominance in global critical mineral supply chains, warning that excessive reliance on a single country for strategically important resources poses serious risks to economic stability and national security.
Addressing the House Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, Department of State and Related Programs, Rubio said the concentration of mineral production and processing capacity in China has created a major vulnerability for the United States and its allies across Europe and Asia.
He stressed that dependence on any single nation for critical inputs to defence, technology and industrial sectors is “dangerous,” adding that such reliance leaves global economies exposed during geopolitical or supply disruptions.
Rubio noted that materials such as lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements and graphite are essential for a wide range of modern technologies, including electric vehicles, semiconductors, renewable energy systems, telecommunications infrastructure and advanced defence equipment.
The US, he said, is actively working to reduce this dependency by building new international partnerships aimed at diversifying supply chains and developing alternative sources of both raw materials and processing capacity. He highlighted the participation of more than three dozen countries in a recent Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting as evidence of growing global attention to the issue.
According to Rubio, critical minerals have now become a central element of US diplomatic engagement, with American embassies worldwide increasingly tasked with identifying supply chain risks and fostering cooperation on resource security.
He warned that overdependence on a single supplier could enable economic coercion and destabilise global markets, adding that similar concerns extend beyond minerals to include pharmaceuticals and other strategically important sectors with concentrated production bases.
US lawmakers, including Representative John Moolenaar, have also been pushing for stronger measures to secure supply chains and reduce reliance on Chinese-controlled resources amid intensifying strategic competition between Washington and Beijing.
Rubio said the administration’s broader strategy goes beyond securing access to raw materials, focusing equally on building global processing capabilities needed to convert minerals into usable industrial and defence products.
He reiterated that strengthening supply chain resilience has become a key priority in US foreign policy as geopolitical competition with China continues to intensify.