by Natalie Winters at Natalie Winters Substack
American taxpayer funds have supported research at a leading Chinese Communist Party-owned laboratory central to Beijing’s push to monopolize control over rare earths.
The State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications (SKL-REMCA) at Peking University is one of the regime’s most important arms of its scientific apparatus and has been central to China’s rise as the global leader in rare-earth processing. It operates under the supervision of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education, both explicitly tasked with advancing projects tied to China’s “national strategic needs.”
Despite this conflict of interest, U.S. federal funding from institutions including the Office of Naval Research, Department of Energy, and National Science Foundation have supported research conducted at SKL-REMCA.
Research into rare earth conducted under the Hundred Talents Program, a controversial program flagged by the U.S. government for its contributions to espionage and aiding China in winning the technology race.