Is China's rare earth monopoly already unbreakable?

Global Roaming with Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald · Sep 24, 2026 · 29m

China controls as much as 95–99% of the world's heavy rare earth processing.

Your phone, your car, the wind turbines on the horizon, the F-35 fighter jet; all of them run on permanent magnets made from a handful of obscure elements, and nearly every gram of it passes through Chinese hands before it reaches the rest of the world.

Beijing didn't seize this position overnight. It's the result of three decades of Western capital and regulation walking away from an industry China chose to dominate.

Now, with export freezes already hitting Japan and rattling European car makers, analyst and author…