WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Tuesday that the United States needs to do more to counter Chinese actions, including its strategy for creating military bases and its pursuit of rare-earth minerals in Africa.
Campbell told a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that competition with China was the “defining geopolitical challenge confronting modern American diplomacy.”
“We need to do more, and we have to contest Chinese actions, not only in terms of their forward basing strategy, but their desire to go after Africa’s rare earths that will be critical for our industrial and technological capabilities,” Campbell said.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons noted that the U.S. did not have an ambassador in the small African country of Eswatini, one of the few remaining countries that recognizes Taiwan rather than Beijing diplomatically.
“The place that really the Chinese are taking it to us is in international organizations,” Campbell said.
“We have to be able to contest there. I don’t like going to a country in which we sit down with the leader and we don’t have an ambassador there; hasn’t been there for a couple years … I do believe we should put these folks on the field.”
Rare earths are vital for high-tech applications, including defense equipment, and for U.S. President Joe Biden’s efforts to electrify the auto market to help stave off climate change.
The United States is eager to secure sources beyond China, which in 2022 accounted for more than 70% of world rare-earth production.
This post is originally published on INVESTING.
