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China’s dominance over global battery processing is a clear national security risk, and policymakers in Washington should treat it that way.
As former congressional staff, we know that standing up to China is one of the few bipartisan national security issues left in Congress. Republicans like Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.), Sen. Ted Budd (R., N.C.) and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.) all have strong records on the need to de-risk U.S. supply chains from the threat of China’s dominance. Now, a new report shows the urgency of directing that focus toward China’s dominance in batteries.
A new report from the Responsible Battery Coalition and the Coalition for a Prosperous America lays out the problem in direct terms: China controls a commanding share of the world’s battery materials processing capacity, including the antimony used in batteries. That dominance gives Beijing leverage over industries that are central to the U.S. economy.
Every gasoline-powered vehicle and vessel in America cannot start without a battery and the critical minerals inside them. The dependence runs deeper than our roads and waterways. Municipal power grids, data centers, and telecommunications equipment also rely on batteries to store and deploy energy — all of which depend on critical minerals. The keys to America’s future are held in China.
The report warns that even when raw materials are mined outside China, they are often sent there for processing, even if mined in America. That chokepoint leaves the United States and its allies exposed. If tensions escalate, Beijing has the ability to disrupt supply chains that American manufacturers increasingly depend on.
Congress and the administration have taken steps to onshore production and diversify sourcing, but the report’s findings show those efforts are not moving fast enough. Permitting delays, regulatory uncertainty, and a lack of coordinated strategy continue to slow domestic projects. Meanwhile, China continues to scale.
The U.S. has already seen how overreliance on foreign supply chains can create vulnerabilities. Batteries are the next front, and the stakes are higher given their role in both economic growth and national defense.
Lawmakers should take this warning seriously and that means accelerating domestic processing capacity, strengthening partnerships with allies, and removing barriers that keep U.S. projects stuck in limbo.
