I'm surprised China managed to pull that off. Given all the intel budgets the US has, you'd think someone would have noticed before 97% were reached...
Well we have been trading them fiat dollars for tangible assets. So those existing rare earth purchases are now in the US. In some ways it seems, like there was an orchestrated effort to use the consumables of others while the dollar was still strong knowing full well that we could always fall back on our own reserves. So we traded paper for real goods until the rest of the world caught on, that we where doing so. I think China woke up to the fact that they where exporting their riches for a fiat. Now they are in a precarious position where they have to stop giving away their true riches while not calling it for what it is. Not until they can divest themselves of the dollar or they will implode the system while they are holding the bag. Export restrictions on raw materials would be one way to do so. At least that way these elements cant be bought in bulk and stockpiled.