China’s tightening grip over the minerals that power advanced technologies has moved from long-term strategic concern to immediate economic threat—and the U.S. is woefully unprepared, Wharton’s Jeremy Siegel warned.
“It’s scandalous that we don’t have a rare earth strategic reserve,” Siegel told CNBC’s Squawk Box Monday, calling it a major security failure. “We let China monopolize 90% of refining rare earth materials. Where were we, realizing the importance of these?”
Siegel urged the U.S. to build a rare earth stockpile similar to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was created in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo left the country exposed to geopolitical blackmail.
His warning comes just days after Beijing unveiled sweeping new export controls that would require companies worldwide to seek Chinese approval before shipping thousands of products containing even trace amounts of rare earths. The move sent shockwaves through U.S. manufacturing and defense supply chains, which rely heavily on Chinese mineral processing.
But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that President Donald Trump will still meet China’s Xi Jinping later this month and is ready to respond “with whatever it takes” to counter China’s export restrictions.
