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Pain or gain? US moves to decouple its defence industry from China’s rare earths
Directive seen as a long-overdue enforcement crackdown meant to inflict short-term contractor pain for long-term national security gain
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Alyssa ChenPublished: 10:00pm, 1 Aug 2026A recent US executive order requires major arms manufacturers to trace their multi-tier supply chains and actively phase out Chinese rare earths, aiming to end years of reliance on cheap minerals from China.
Far from a radical policy shift, industry observers view the directive as a long-overdue enforcement crackdown designed to inflict short-term contractor pain for long-term national security gain.
While contractors face immediate hurdles to requalify suppliers and find non-Chinese alternatives, US analysts said the market adjustments were manageable, though delivery timetables for future military hardware could slightly stretch.
They also warned that true strategic independence needed sustained, long-term capital investment in non-Chinese midstream processing.
Signed on July 20 by US President Donald Trump, the executive order significantly tightens the conditions under which the Department of Defence can issue waivers for defence-critical imports from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
US defence procurement rules strictly prohibit sourcing from adversary states certain “covered materials” – ranging from rare earth magnets to newly added inputs like gallium and germanium – with exemptions available under waiver conditions.
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