Like his pals Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, Sacks is using his wealth and online clout to unite conservatives and former leftists in a reactionary movement against liberalism.
The Economist in 2019.
It is not that rare earth materials do not exist outside of China, although it sits on the largest quantity: approximately 30-40% of all known rare earth deposits. Rather, extracting the materials is a difficult and highly polluting process that China was willing to take on.. making it practically impossible for competing companies outside China to get a foothold, according to the Danish Institute for International Studies.
China s de facto monopoly forms an acute problem: international reliance on them could hamper vital industries and national security at a time of maximum competition between China and the US.
Biden’s biggest clean-energy partner: China
With help from Jesse Naranjo and Lorraine Woellert
THE BIG IDEA
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly in May 2020. | Li Xueren/Xinhua via AP
THE GEOPOLITICS OF RENEWABLES It’s a dirty truth. The U.S path to clean energy goes straight through China.
President Joe Biden’s plan to green the economy by 2035 will require cooperation from America’s largest trading partner, which controls a vast share of the minerals used in electric batteries, the cheap materials that make up solar panels and the guts of wind turbines.