Last update: Monday 3/9/26 11:00am
The original title of this first in a series of installments that was posted on this blog in January 2026 was "America's unlikely but successful bipartisan path to a reliable rare earth supply chain " -- a title that reflected its editor's optimism. He was optimistic because he didn't yet understand how China was really leveraging its dominance of the tiny $4 billion global market for rare earths by embedding them in innovative high tech products worth hundreds of billions as exports, e.g., iPhones and 'cPhones' (a/k/a Huawei smartphones) and Teslas and 'cTeslas' (a/k/a BYD's) .
-- Note: Huawei's smartphones grossed larger sales than iPhones in 2025; BYD's EVs grossed larger sales than Teslas in 2025.
