America Produces Less Than 1% of the Rare Earth Magnets It Needs

China's ongoing weaponization of rare earths, which has now been bolstered to include measures to keep individuals with sensitive technological knowledge from leaving the country, gives it leverage over a $1.5 trillion U.S. civilian economy that depends on permanent magnets. The Pentagon has spent years preparing for life without Chinese rare earths, but the civilian economy hasn't. IMF researchers identified 34 sectors of the U.S. economy with direct exposure to rare earth supply disruptions, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates a complete Chinese cutoff could put roughly $6.5 trillion of downstream industrial production outside China at risk.