BANGALORE—The Quad countries—the United States, India, Japan, and Australia—recently sought to address their dependence on supply chains for critical technologies that China dominates. The QUAD met virtually for its first leadership summit  on March 12 and decided to convene a coordination group for critical technologies that essentially include artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, quantum, robotics, and blockchain. The QUAD’s critical and emerging technology working group will convene dialogues on critical technology supply chains that the Chinese currently dominate. A noted scientist and an expert in critical technologies told The Epoch Times in an exclusive interview that it’s important for the QUAD nations to work out the nuances because critical technology supply chains are very complex. These critical technologies depend upon the critical or the rare earth (RE) elements whose processing China predominates. Even the manufacture of key intermediate products essential to these high-tech growth industries is also controlled by China. The …