China needs Madagascar, Afghanistan to save its rare earth empire. Its monopoly is in danger

From extraction and production to the manufacturing and supply chain—China is an ever-present entity in the conversation about rare earth elements today. In fact, it awakened the world to the geopolitical and strategic use of rare earths in 2012. Since then, Beijing’s resource diplomacy has been shaping individual, bilateral, and multilateral initiatives globally. But in the past few…