Kim Beazley warns on China’s grip over rare earth metals

Speaking at a national security conference in Canberra, he said the West risked becoming too dependent on China for rare earths.

Beazley pointed to the 3400 American weapons using Chinese rare earth minerals and warned that Beijing has signalled that it could cut off the flow.

“The Chinese have already sent in legislation, in 2019 and 2020, that they will not permit rare earths to be sold from them to any company which is producing weapons for a potential enemy.

“I have never been able to figure out why the Chinese in the circumstances of our current competition, don’t pull the trigger on that, particularly after the decisions that have been taken on selling (computer) chips to China, for example, but they haven’t,” he said.

Rare earths refer to 17 minerals with magnetic and conductive properties that help power most electronic devices. They are vital for military weapons systems including lasers, radar, sonar, night vision systems, missile guidance, jet engines and alloys for armoured vehicles.

Beazley, defence minister from 1984 to 1990, said that Australia’s status as a resources superpower could also help break China’s monopoly. Mines in Western Australia and the Northern Territory could be revived to extract rare earth minerals.

Read Related Also: Scrubs producer Eric Weinberg is handcuffed as he appears in LA court for 18 counts including rape

In five to 10 years, the US and its allies could “extract and process sufficient of those materials to completely replace that dependency that the United States – for that matter, Europe – has on China,” he said.

He is a former leader of the federal Labor party and ambassador to the US.

Beazley is also considered close to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

– Reported with CNN