Best of 2025 - China, US or us? Australia’s Upper Path in the global minerals race |
The headlines are breathless: “ China versus the world,” proclaimed The Australian, quoting some very important people from the sheriff’s office urging allies to “decouple” from Beijing and unite against China’s “takeover of global rare earth supply chains”.
A repost from 24 October 2025
While Anthony Albanese and his team are working on that, why don’t we just call this what it is?
It’s not China versus the world – it’s China versus someone else. And we, like so many others, are once again being asked to pick a side in someone else’s fight, on someone else’s terms, for someone else’s strategic gain.
The latest chapter of this epic rivalry is dressed in minerals, manufacturing and moral clarity. Beijing has announced that global companies must now seek approval before exporting products containing Chinese-sourced rare earths – a significant move, considering how embedded these materials are in the world’s tech and defence supply chains.
This isn’t unprecedented. It closely mirrors Washington’s own sweeping controls on advanced chips and AI hardware, where global firms — including those in allied countries — must now seek US approval before exporting goods with even a sliver of American-origin tech to China.
And once again, Canberra is being nudged to “join the team”, show loyalty and dig faster.
However, the real........