For decades, the seventeen elements known as rare earths quietly underpinned the modern world — from the screens in our pockets to the guidance systems of missiles — and for a time, the United States held mastery over their refinement. That mastery was surrendered not in a single moment of defeat but through a long accumulation of economic choices, regulatory pressures, and strategic inattention, while China patiently built the infrastructure to fill the void. By 2026, Beijing controls the majority of global rare earth processing, transforming a technical industrial advantage into a geopolitic