News Analysis Global supply chain interruptions are exacerbated by China’s lock on chemical processing. In 1987, former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said, “The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths.” It seems that decades ago, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had already recognized the importance of controlling raw materials. Beyond mining and extraction, China’s efforts to hold power over the global raw materials market have included domination of processing and smelting. This processing-based strategy, combined with government monopolies and lax environmental regulations, has allowed China to become the world’s largest producer of critical raw materials. China dominates the global supply of 21 of the 35 minerals recognized by the U.S. government as critical. This means that China either accounts for the largest imports of these minerals to the United States, or has the world’s largest deposits, or is the largest producer. A good example of China’s dominance in the minerals …