For those that speculate US can appropriate the RE they got in their civ industry and provide their MIC. Do note that China is not exporting raw RE but products/parts made with RE (ie magnets), those parts are made with precise specs and composition. If US MIC wants to make use of those civilian parts they pretty much has to melt the thing and isolate and purify the RE element all over again. This is not a whole lot better than getting RE from Chinese washing machines is it?
Also not every RE are the same, some RE has majority civilian use, so even if MIC toke their portion it is hardly noticeable (niobium, gallium, germanium....etc). But some are primarily military use (samarium), if MIC toke their portion the civ sector will not have enough to keep production.
Also not every RE are the same, some RE has majority civilian use, so even if MIC toke their portion it is hardly noticeable (niobium, gallium, germanium....etc). But some are primarily military use (samarium), if MIC toke their portion the civ sector will not have enough to keep production.