When monsters square off, they are quick to showcase their asymmetrical superpowers.
asserted
they → square → superpowers
Thanks to U.S. atomic testing in the Pacific, the dinosaur-like sea creature has explosive, radioactive breath that can destroy everything in its path.
asserted
that → have → path
His archenemy Rodan, meanwhile, is a pterodactyl-like bird that can fly at supersonic speeds, a skill useful in avoiding atomic bad breath.
asserted
that → fly → breath
Since the 1960s, the two giant monsters have duked it out across a series of Japanese films, causing much mayhem in the process.
asserted
monsters → duke → process
Originally the product of Cold War fears of nuclear peril, these archetypal monsters can stand in for the principal geopolitical antagonists of today.
asserted
monsters → stand → today
Like their monster kin, China and the United States have very specific and complementary superpowers.
asserted
China → have → superpowers
China controls the majority of critical minerals in the world, with a special focus on rare earth elements.
asserted
China → control → elements
The United States has a technological edge when it comes to the most sophisticated semiconductors needed for artificial intelligence applications.
asserted
it → have → applications
Put bluntly: China has the rocks, and America has the chips.
asserted
America → put → chips
With these superpowers on display, the two countries have clashed in a series of trade negotiations, tense military standoffs, and high-level political meetings.
asserted
countries → clash → negotiations
They are engaged in a prolonged tug-of-war not to save the world — as in some comic-book universe — but in the service of their own national aggrandizement and transnational greed.
asserted
They → engage → aggrandizement
While they dicker, the world slouches toward bedlam.
asserted
world → dicker → bedlam
A Pause in Hostilities
When President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing in mid-May, the exchanges were unexpectedly cordial.
uncertain
exchanges → meet → May
The two countries had been engaged in an on-again, off-again war of tariffs since Trump had begun his second term, a conflict that threatened to spiral out of control.
asserted
that → engage → control
At the same time, the Chinese were deeply concerned about the impact of the U.S.–Israeli war against Iran on international stability, given spiking oil prices and their ripple effects on the global economy.
asserted
Chinese → concern → economy
Yet, at this meeting in China, the two leaders converged on a common goal of “constructive strategic stability.”
asserted
leaders → converge → stability
In order to forge this condominium of superpowers — a G2 — Trump was willing to delay arms deliveries to Taiwan.
asserted
Trump → forge → Taiwan
He also greenlighted the sale of sophisticated (though not the most advanced) Nvidia computer chips to China.
asserted
He → greenlighte → China
In turn, China agreed to increase its purchases from the United States, including 200 Boeing aircraft and $17 billion of agricultural goods each year through 2028.
asserted
China → agree → 2028
The hoopla surrounding the summit, generated by press offices on both sides, obscured the reality that the two countries completed few concrete bilateral deals.
asserted
countries → surround → deals
Trump did not secure long-term access to the critical minerals that China controls — specifically the rare earth elements that are essential to U.S. high-tech manufacturing and sophisticated military hardware — and the tech giants that accompanied Trump on the trip didn’t win any major concessions in the form of enhanced access to the Chinese market.
asserted
that → secure → market
Meanwhile, China failed to alter U.S. security policy in the Asia–Pacific region.
asserted
China → fail → region
The leaders of the new G2 might be expected to rethink or rework the global rules of the road, but this was not on the agenda in Beijing.
uncertain
this → expect → Beijing
Still, the two superpowers stepped off the path of escalating confrontation.
asserted
superpowers → step → confrontation
Perhaps more importantly, Trump has seemingly abandoned his earlier goal of decoupling the United States from the Chinese economy, which, along with ratcheting up containment of the “strategic competitor,” had become something of a bipartisan imperative.
asserted
which → abandon → imperative
For the time being at least, the world’s superpower monsters are not laying waste to the landscape around their feet.
asserted
monsters → lay → feet
Given how much firepower they command, that’s no small achievement.
asserted
that → give → firepower
The battle, however, continues to rage further afield in the mineral world.
asserted
battle → continue → world
Grabbing the Rocks
Rare earth elements, or REE, aren’t rare.
asserted
Grabbing → grab → elements
But it can be quite difficult to extract any of these 17 unusual metals from their surrounding ores.
asserted
it → extract → ores
The United States used to be the world’s leading extractor and processor of these resources, from a mine in California near the Nevada border.
asserted
States → use → border
But that was back when REE were mostly used for such products as black-and-white televisions.
asserted
REE → use → televisions
The environmental damage caused by the extraction and processing — as well as the labor costs involved — impelled the United States, over time, to outsource operations to China.
asserted
damage → cause → China
By the time REE had become indispensable to the manufacture of very powerful magnets used in everything from wireless iPhone chargers to the F-35 fighter jet, China was controlling upward of 60 percent of the extraction and 90 percent of the processing.
asserted
China → become → processing
It has filed more patents for the latest processing techniques than any other country.
asserted
It → file → country
It has also expanded beyond digging up its own territory and, through its Belt and Road Initiative — a globe-spanning collection of interconnected infrastructure projects — secured access to mines overseas.
asserted
It → expand → mines
In Tanzania, for instance, an Australian firm Peak Rare Earths discovered what may well be the largest untapped supply of REE in 2010.
uncertain
what → discover → 2010
This is exactly what the United States and its allies had been looking for: ore that can be extracted and processed outside of China.
asserted
that → look → China
Except that last year, the Chinese firm Shenghe Resources bought the Australian company — and the rights to the Tanzanian deposits — for a little more than $100 million.
asserted
firm → buy → million
China is further cornering the market by importing ore from rare earth mines in Myanmar, exploiting new deposits in Brazil, and eying Malaysia and Indonesia for potential processing operations.
asserted
China → corner → operations
…and 114 more, not listed.
The Aporia
