In the midst of the on-again-off-again Iran War, American leadership in Washington is also fighting a longer-running battle over China’s mineral supremacy.
The latest move came on July 30, when President Trump signed a presidential determination that hands the Commerce Department power under the Defense Production Act to keep critical minerals and materials from leaving the country. It came on the heels of Executive Order 14415, ten days earlier, which directed the Pentagon to trace every critical material in its weapons and defense systems back to the mine it came from. The idea is to “secure its supply chains against physical, cyber, and economic subversion.” The real translation? To force out suppliers along that chain that are tied to China.
The crucial date that’s looming ahead is January 1, 2027. That’s when those Pentagon rules will bar Chinese rare-earth magnets from its weapons systems. As of today, the U.S. continues to buy most of those magnets from China. And China has already restricted that supply.
In April 2025, across the Pacific, leaders in Beijing placed export controls on seven rare earths and the magnets built from them that are part of fighter jets, missiles, cars, and wind turbines. That restriction remains in force and will continue to be a factor. When China moved to widen its controls last October, Trump and Xi struck a truce with terms that paused the new measures for one year, to November 10, 2026.
The U.S. has put itself in a catch-up position spanning decades and is now short the very raw and refined metals needed to arm its military and rebuild its energy and infrastructure sectors. That presents a growing economic and national security crisis.