Why did China wait until now to cut the US off from rare earth elements? Because they hadn't yet freed themselves from dependence on US helium.
"...until 2022 China imported 95% of its helium and most of it was controlled by the US. Of the world's ten largest helium producers, four were American companies, and the remaining six all used American technology.
Helium isn't just a party balloons gas: it has plenty of industrial applications for things such as quantum computing, rocket technology, MRI machines, as a coolant for chip lithography equipment, etc.
...
...with helium the US had an even stronger card to play if China ever used the rare earths card.
This raised huge alarm bells inside China.
...
So over the past few years there were gigantic efforts in China to break the "helium shackles...The result: by the end of 2024 China had cut its helium dependence on the US to less than 5%...The "helium shackles" were broken..."
[Link in comments]
"...until 2022 China imported 95% of its helium and most of it was controlled by the US. Of the world's ten largest helium producers, four were American companies, and the remaining six all used American technology.
Helium isn't just a party balloons gas: it has plenty of industrial applications for things such as quantum computing, rocket technology, MRI machines, as a coolant for chip lithography equipment, etc.
...
...with helium the US had an even stronger card to play if China ever used the rare earths card.
This raised huge alarm bells inside China.
...
So over the past few years there were gigantic efforts in China to break the "helium shackles...The result: by the end of 2024 China had cut its helium dependence on the US to less than 5%...The "helium shackles" were broken..."
[Link in comments]