The Rare Earth Retreat: How the West Outsourced Its Dirty Work and Paid the Price For four decades, advanced economies have systematically retreated from rare earth element (REE) processing, ceding control to China due to economic pressures, stringent environmental regulations, and a deliberate choice to offload ecologically damaging work. REEs, vital for technologies like electric vehicles and defense systems, require processing that generates toxic and radioactive waste. Western nations, bound by costly regulations and high labor costs, outsourced this “dirty” work to China, where lax oversight and cheap labor made production economical. By the 2000s, China held a near-monopoly, producing 95% of global REEs. The 2010-2011 REE crisis exposed the West’s vulnerability, with soaring prices and supply chain risks. Today, geopolitical tensions and surging demand for green tech have left the West scrambling to revive domestic capabilities, trapped by the same environmental and economic hu...