In race for Central Asia’s rare earths, China is leaving US in the dust

Over the past year, the US has moved to expand cooperation with Central Asian countries on critical minerals. This is being done in an effort to limit China’s chokehold on the resources that are critical to a range of industries where Beijing and Washington are locked in competition.
Yet, the United States is lagging behind China in Central Asia. Beijing has long developed an efficient strategy to position itself as a dominant actor in the region’s critical minerals sector. Uzbekistan is a key…