China Defeats US in Trade Deal

News has just come out that Trump has reached a trade deal with China and, at first glance, it appears to be a strategic defeat for the US.
 
Note:  We’re not going to discuss the political or financial aspects of the deal, only the military implications.
 
With regard to the military, the two key elements of the deal are:
 
1. US will continue to receive magnets and rare earths
2. US will continue to accept Chinese students
 
The magnets and rare earths aspect only furthers our vulnerability to this strategically vital resource.  China has never met a treaty or deal that it wasn’t willing to break (UNCLOS tribunal, for example) when it suited them so why would we think that China won’t threaten to cut off our supply the next time some disagreement or crisis arises?  We are continuing our dependency on our enemy.  That’s insane.  It would be far better to quit, cold turkey, and initiate a crash program to produce our own materials.
 
If this deal were just a stopgap while we frantically established our own strategic materials supply, I might be able to accept it but I see no evidence that we’re engaged in any massively accelerated program to do so.  Human nature, being what it is, we’ll just continue to depend on China without really addressing our vulnerability in any useful time frame.
 
We should be waiving every permit and review requirement in order to establish our supply as quickly as possible.  If necessary, we should be subsidizing construction and production;  after all, it’s a strategic necessity!
 
Every Chinese student we educate is both a technological spy and a future scientific asset to be used against us.  We are educating our enemy and giving them a look at cutting edge university research.  That’s insane.
 
From a military perspective, I can’t understand what Trump was thinking.  If I’m China, I’m extremely happy with the deal.

China Halts Rare Earths Export

As part of the ongoing trade war between the US and China, China has halted exports of rare earths, those raw materials that are such a vital component of so many US military weapons and sensors.  If the halt is protracted, this could cripple US military manufacturing.
 
I love it!
 
This is exactly what the US needs to get us off our complacent, vulnerable, regulatory-constrained asses and start producing our own rare earths.  We have them.  We’ve just bound ourselves in so much regulatory constraints that it’s not economical or feasible to produce them.  We need to unbind ourselves, reduce our regulations to a more reasonable level, and recognize that certain strategic materials need to be not only exempt from some regulations but actively supported and encouraged.  Congress should put a such a bill on the President’s desk today.
 
Yes, I know, we’ve previously begun to build a rare earth mining/refining facility but it’s nowhere near enough.
 
This is a losing proposition for China.  They’re depriving themselves of a market, hurting their own industries, and forcing the US to become more self-reliant.  It’s the very definition of stupidity.  This is what happens when your geopolitical goal is global conquest instead of peaceful coexistence.  Evil invariably defeats itself.  We just need to help it along when the opportunity presents itself..
 
If exploited properly, this is a winning proposition for the US.  We could develop a new industry, create jobs, keep monies ‘in-house’, weaken China, and reduce one of our major strategic vulnerabilities.  We should send China a thank-you note.  Trump should be on TV explaining this to the American people.
 
I love it!