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To the editor:
We all know about Bidenflation (inflation at 40-year high), illegal immigration (humanitarian catastrophe), the distribution of "safe smoking kits" including a crack pipe, baby formula shortage crisis, fentanyl killing over 42,000 18-to-45-year-olds in 2021 (more than COVID-19), FBI calling parents domestic terrorists, sky-high gas prices, canceled oil leases in Alaska and gulf, Supreme Court leak, defund police and resulting shootings and transgender impact on women sports to mention a few. But what aren't they telling you?
China now dominates the world's production of lithium batteries that are used in electric vehicles and most portable consumer electronics -- cell phones/laptops. The United States is dependent on "Chinese supply chains" to produce the batteries that power America's technologies. China controls the processing of almost all the critical minerals -- rare earth, lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and graphite. Of the 136 lithium-ion battery plants in the pipeline to 2029, 101 are based in China. China also controls the solar panel and wind turbine industry. Electrification of the U.S. economy and its transportation system will mean the "Chinafication" of these important parts of our economy.
The Biden administration is releasing 50 million barrels of oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gas prices. Not all those barrels are going to U.S. consumers. A total of 18 million (1/3) are to be sold to China and India which will help drive down U.S. oil prices. Really? How? So much for the energy independence we used to have!
The U.S. military is almost completely dependent on China for key minerals. Most of the mineral antimony -- which is used in the production of ammunition, armor-piercing bullets, explosives, nuclear weapons, and night vision goggles -- is mined in China, Russia and Tajikistan. The U.S. has no domestic mine for the mineral antimony. It is also widely used in semiconductor technology. "The National Defense Stockpile (NDS), a reserve of critical materials used in national emergencies, is no longer capable of covering the Department of Defense's needs for the vast majority of identified materials in the event of a supply chain disruption."
Ninety-seven percent of all antibiotics and 80 percent of all active ingredients in American pharmaceuticals come from China. In 2017 alone, the United States imported a whopping $4.6 billion in foodstuffs from China. There has been a tenfold expansion of Chinese ownership of farmland in the United States in less than a decade. China owns the equivalent of Pennsylvania today. It puts the food security of our nation in the hands of a hostile foreign power. And at least two-thirds of the world's top 50 container ports are owned by the Chinese or supported by Chinese investments including terminals at major U.S. container ports in Los Angeles and Seattle.
China is also heavily involved in our corporate news media, film industry, and owns ten radio stations in major U.S. cities spreading propaganda. We should be very concerned or learn Chinese!
Arthur Keller
Beavertown