White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro says the Trump administration is moving aggressively to end U.S. reliance on China's critical minerals supply chain, arguing Beijing has weaponized its dominance over rare earths to strengthen its economic and geopolitical influence.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published Tuesday, Navarro warned that China's control of critical minerals poses a direct threat to U.S. national security while outlining the administration's effort to rebuild a domestic, China-free supply chain with the help of private industry and Pentagon-backed investments.

"China is using its control over the supply chain for rare-earth and other critical minerals to dominate global commerce and project state power — and the world is finally waking up to the danger," Navarro wrote.

He said China's strategy has gone far beyond trade, accusing Beijing of using "state subsidies, currency manipulation, intellectual-property theft, forced technology transfer, state-directed overcapacity, blocked market access, dumping, forced labor and lax environmental standards" to gain an advantage over foreign competitors.

Navarro argued the strategy now centers on critical minerals that are essential for advanced weapons systems, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, aerospace, satellites, electric vehicles, and other strategic technologies.

He said Beijing is using "starve, not strangle" tactics to maintain leverage over global manufacturers.

"Its bureaucracy slows licenses, rations access, raises costs and reminds every boardroom that the road to strategic manufacturing runs through Beijing," Navarro wrote.

To counter China's dominance, Navarro said the Trump administration is combining private-sector innovation with federal support to restore U.S. production capacity.

He highlighted a Pentagon-supported partnership between ReElement Technologies and Vulcan Elements, noting the War Department has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the companies' projects and announced an additional $25 million Monday to expand domestic refining of rare earth elements and other defense-critical minerals.

Navarro compared the initiative to the Trump administration's pandemic-era effort to rapidly increase ventilator production by pairing Ventec Life Systems with General Motors.

"The industrial lesson is the same: When government identifies the strategic gap, removes obstacles and matches innovators with industrial partners, America can move quickly," he wrote.

According to Navarro, ReElement's refining technology can process material from domestic mines, recycled magnets, industrial waste and other feedstocks, allowing the United States to compete with China while avoiding what he described as Beijing's environmentally destructive production methods.

He likened the technology's potential to the shale revolution, arguing it could transform the United States into a critical minerals powerhouse much as hydraulic fracturing made America an energy superpower.

Navarro said China's attempt to use its dominance as leverage has instead accelerated efforts by the United States and its allies to diversify supply chains.

"China built its leverage by making the world believe it was the sole supplier," he wrote. "America's task is to work with our free-world allies to make sure there is an alternative — cleaner, cheaper and faster."