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The recent news that China is planning to ban the sale of critical minerals to the United States has sent massive chills down the spine American manufacturers and investors, threatening billions of dollars in damage to our economy. This represents a choice for America. Do we take control of our economic future and embrace the resource wealth literally beneath our feet, or will we step back and allow hostile adversaries like China to dictate the economic and national security course of the 21st century?
As shown in recent reports, China has announced an export ban on gallium, germanium and antimony. These minerals are essential for the manufacture of electric cars, renewable energy sources, computers, smartphones and defense technology such as radar systems, to name a few. In other words, such minerals are essential for competition in the economy of the future; China has it, and won't export it anymore, and that leaves our economy at a disadvantage – unless we step up and seize the opportunity.
We now live in a transformative economic era not seen since the last industrial revolution. Over the past three decades, Global economy We have rapidly digitized, which now means that minerals like those held hostage by China are becoming more important to our prosperity and national security. This is precisely why China does not want to be followed by the rest of the world.
The fact of the matter is that whoever pays the player has to call the tune. This is true of politics and daily life as well as the global economy. When the United States and its allies depend on bad actors and adversaries for the things we need to drive our economy, we are naturally less prosperous, less secure, and less free. As Governor of Alaska, I have a solution for America to deal with this problem.
An oil tanker docked at the Trans Alaska Marine Pipeline Terminal in Valdez, Alaska, August 9, 2008. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
The Chinese Communist Party is not our ally, and it is time we start acting like one. Our current situation as trading partners has been an unstable and unsustainable relationship of comfort for decades, and we can now more fully see the effects of allowing that relationship to make us dependent on them for our economic well-being and the tools of our daily lives.
Fortunately, the United States is more than equipped to meet this moment thanks to our northernmost state. Alaska is not only energy rich, it also has a tremendous abundance of mineral resources throughout the state. All we have to do is simply take advantage of what we already have. Alaska It is home to 49 out of 50 minerals as important as those that China does not want us to have.
Unfortunately, our access as a nation has been greatly hindered by bad politics and misguided policies. For nearly four years, the Biden-Harris administration's “look but don't touch” approach to Alaska has been depriving the hard-working Americans I serve of jobs, and the American people as a whole, of the materials we need to achieve economic success.
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Some worry that access to these mineral resources will come at the expense of Alaska's wildlife and natural beauty, but I find these arguments ridiculous. No one cares more about preserving America's final frontier than the men and women who live, hunt, and fish here. We can do both successfully, and have done so for centuries.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote that dependency “breeds dependency and corruption, stifles the germs of virtue, and furnishes the proper instruments of ambitious designs.” Given the fact that a simple embargo on exports from the other side of the Pacific now threatens to severely damage our economy, it is difficult to argue with Mr. Jefferson. To compete in the 21st century, America needs critical minerals for consumer products and defense systems, and it needs energy to power both. Our need for these will not diminish; If we want our children to inherit the prosperity and independence we value, it's time to stop looking abroad for the building blocks of a strong America and start looking north to… Alaska.
