The Trump administration is forming a coalition to counter China’s dominant control of critical minerals and emerging power as a center of AI and other tech sectors.
The administration plans to launch the coalition of partners with the signing Friday of the Pax Silica Declaration, uniting Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Israel in a collaboration intended to address deficits in critical mineral access edging out China’s massive investment in its critical minerals and tech sector. The administration is actively looking to enlist other countries to join the group.
The declaration — a statement of common principles — paves the way for joint research and development, manufacturing and infrastructure development intended to to rival China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg told POLITICO.
The initiative underscores the degree to which the Trump administration considers China’s near monopoly in rare earths – minerals that are critical to civilian and military applications – and dominance of other parts of the global supply chain, as a significant threat.
Beijing has wielded its dominance of the sectorthrough export restrictions intended to hit back against the Trump administration’s aggressive tariff policy on Chinese imports.
The declaration also reflects U.S. concern about China’s massive investment in artificial intelligence and quantum computing that could give it a competitive edge in the 21st century economy.
“It’s an industrial policy for an economic security coalition and it’s a game changer because there is no grouping today where we can get together to talk about the AI economy and how we compete with China in AI,” Helberg said. “By aligning our economic security approaches, we can start to have cohesion to basically block China’s Belt and Road Initiative — which is really designed to magnify its export-led model — by denying China the ability to buy ports, major highways, transportation and logistics corridors.”
Helberg said that the Trump administration aims to expand the coalition from the initial five countries that sign the declaration to include more allies and partners with mineral, technological and manufacturing resources.
The signing of the declaration kicks off the administration’s one-day Pax Silica Summit, which will include officials from the European Union, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates. The summit will feature discussions about cooperation in areas such as advanced manufacturing, mineral refining and logistics.
“This grouping of countries will be to the AI age what the G7 was to the industrial age,” Helberg said. “It commits us to a process by which we’re going to cooperate on aligning our export controls, screening of foreign investments, addressing anti-dumping but with a very proactive agenda on securing choke points in the global supply chain system.”
