China controls 80% of critical battery materials necessary for American defense technology

In a new overwhelming report, the researchers reveal how China ended up controlling more than 80% of critical gross battery materials necessary for defense technology – constituting a threat of urgent national security.

Thanks to lax license processes, low environmental standards and aggressive interventions directed by the state, China has ended up dominating world supplies of graphite, cobalt, manganese and battery and cathode materials that feed advanced defense systems.

“The batteries will be one of the balls of future wars,” warn the authors of the report, citing their essential role in drones, portable radios, autonomous submersibles and emerging capacities such as lasers and directed energy weapons.

According to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD)The Chinese Communist Party (PCC) has armed the global battery infrastructure thanks to a combination of state subsidies, forced intellectual property transfers and predatory pricing practices.

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Workers represented in a lithium processing installation in China. (Costfoto / Nurphoto via Getty Images)

China was not only based on low -cost tactics – it also used its financial muscle abroad. Over the past two decades, at least 26 banks supported by the state have injected around 57 billion dollars into mining and transformational projects into Africa, Latin America and beyond. These investments, often structured through joint ventures and special vehicles, have given Chinese companies controlling the participations in mineral exploitation, according to the report.

Thanks to its Belt and Road initiative, China has taken advantage of influence in developing countries rich in resources, guaranteeing control of massive critical mineral deposits. Today, it treats around 65% of global lithium, 85% of graphite, 70% of cathodes, 85% of anodes and 97% of active active materials.

Beyond food drones, portable radios and electric vehicles, lithium is essential in strategic military systems: lithium-ion batteries are used in network support for direct energy bases and weapons.

In addition, Beijing began to arm export controls: since 2023, he has tightened restrictions on transformed graphite, gallium and germanium – later adding antimony, tungsten and rare land to the list. These measures limit exports via a license regime and wide prohibitions on exports to the United States, also signaling a clear geopolitical lever effect, according to the report.

China dominates the battery materials market, such as those illustrated above in an exhibition in China. (Qilai Shen / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Lithium and graphite are essential for modern nuclear weapons. Cobalt alloys are used in jet engines, naval turbines, electronic connectors and sensors capable of resisting temperatures, vibrations and extreme radiation.

While the American and lithium allied reserves – brine and hard rock – are being expression, with new projects in North Carolina and South Carolina targeting the national treatment of sprodule, the report says that the extraction and refining of American minerals does not progress quickly enough to respond to national security requests.

Authorization of obstacles represent approximately 40% of all delays in mining projects, notes the report, with processing operations faced with similar constraints.

Chinese subsidies “swim” those available for American companies and include tax exemptions, direct manufacturing subsidies and ultra-basic loans, according to the report.

US companies are now accelerating investments in interior alternatives to Chinese lithium. With new Trump administration initiatives to encourage the development of critical minerals – and predicts that the American lithium market increases by around 500% over the next five years – US companies are starting to strengthen the treatment capacity at home.

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The authors also highlight the importance of allies, recommending diplomatic coordination with trust partners – similar to the previous efforts of the United States involving Ukraine, Greenland and the DRC in rare land supply – to build resilient supply chains out of reach of China. (Getty Images)

Piedmont lithium is developing an installation of northern caroline hydroxide in Caroline to treat the spru -dumène concentrate from its American deposits, while Albemarle recently announced its plans for a new lithium processing factory in the County of Chester, in South Carolina. The two projects are designed to supply a rapidly growing domestic battery ecosystem and reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains.

But to become competitive on a global scale, supports the report, the United States must adopt a much more proactive approach, in particular by encouraging investments in the private sector, by rationalizing federal permits, by establishing a stock of critical minerals, by building technical pipelines of technical talents, by creating special economic areas and developing a robust domestic treatment infrastructure.

The authors also highlight the importance of allies, recommending diplomatic coordination with trust partners – similar to the previous efforts of the United States involving Ukraine, Greenland and the DRC in rare land supply – to build resilient supply chains out of reach of China.

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“Despite China’s control over the battery supply chain, it is a period of great vulnerability for Beijing, while the United States and its main allies remain strong,” concludes the report.

“It is time for new railings, muscle stages and a unified international response to non-commercial manipulation. Building critical supply chains which are independent of the coercive economic practices of China can help to release a wave of cooperation between the countries of the free market which will lift both established allies and emerging market partners and transform the economic model of China against the parasitic economic model China. ” “.