How Donald Trump is relaunching the strategic minerals war against China

When he is not outright opposing them, Donald Trump does not care about the fight against climate change, the energy transition and electric vehicles . Nevertheless: access to rare earths and other critical minerals is an obsession for the American president. Because they are essential to other key sectors for the security of the United States and the growth of its economy, such as defense and missile systems, space, telephony and other new technologies.

And because this is an area where Beijing is taunting the United States. China occupies a crucial position in the extraction and processing of many critical minerals. It supplies 90% of the world's rare earths and refines 68% of cobalt and 65% of nickel. It is "the culmination of a policy…