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China’s rare earth tech obsession ensnares US resident as CCP looks to maintain stranglehold
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China’s bid to strangle the world’s supply of heavy rare-earth elements was about to hit a wall. Vietnamese entrepreneur Luu Anh Tuan had lined up U.S. backing for a technology that could break Beijing’s chokehold on the critical minerals behind everything from smartphones to missile-guidance systems.
Tuan and his family had fled Vietnam for the U.S. to escape Beijing’s tightening grip over Hanoi, where the Chinese Communist Party exerts a heavy influence on domestic governance.
In July 2023, he signed a technology transfer agreement, seen by Fox News Digital, to bring the heavy rare earth separation technology he was using at his Vietnam-based company, Vietnam Rare Earth (VTRE) to VTRU Corporation, a company registered in Nevada. VTRE had also signed a series of memoranda of understanding (MOU) agreements with Western companies.
«He had a bad sense of insecurity about being in Vietnam. He was determined to transfer his technology to the US as quickly as possible,» a source familiar with the rare earth industry, granted anonymity to speak without fear of retribution, told Fox News Digital.
CHINESE CITIZEN ADMITS STEALING US TRADE SECRETS FOR NEXT-GENERATION NATIONAL SECURITY TECH
Luu Anh Tuan, chairman of mining company VTRE in his Hanoi office with samples of rare earth oxides in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sept. 7, 2023. (Reuters )
At the time, the world was entirely dependent on Chinese companies to separate their heavy rare earth metals.
«China has been really working for the better part of over 20 years now on building this dominance,» Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an interview.
And while companies like U.S.-based MP Materials and Australia-based Lynas are in the process of developing their own separation technologies, China still controls up to 90% of the rare earths separation and refining capacity and over half of mining output.
In October 2023, Tuan, then a U.S. permanent resident and green card holder in the process of becoming a citizen, was back in his Hanoi office when Vietnamese authorities raided the building, seizing all laptops and records. Seventeen employees were arrested, according to Tuan’s American business partner, Richard Dunham, and all but one, Do Hanh Huong, Tuan’s sister-in-law and COO of VTRE, have since been released.
The arrest came shortly after President Joe Biden visited Vietnam and signed cooperation agreements on rare earth minerals.
CHINA CONTROLS OVER 80% OF BATTERY MATERIALS CRUCIAL TO US DEFENSE EQUIPMENT, UNSETTLING REPORT REVEALS
In December, China banned rare earth extraction and separation, in what the industry saw as another effort to maintain its monopoly on the market.
«When China put in these restrictions, it really made countries like the U.S. and Australia realize that they didn’t actually even have the technical know-how to do it themselves,» said Baskaran.
«The process itself is just very labor-intensive and very toxic,» said Josh Birenbaum, a minerals expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, adding China cornered the market through state subsidies and lax environmental concerns.
While the U.S. has one major rare earths mine, MP Materials’ Mountain Pass, until this year, the company was exporting those rare earths to China for separation. The trade war and export controls that followed prompted the U.S. to stockpile its rare earths until separation capacity was up to scale at home.
Tuan was accused of forging a value-added tax receipt while trading rare earths with Thai Duong Group, which operates a mine in the northern Vietnamese province of Yen Bai.
Xenotime ore (Getty Images )
VTRE had partnered with Australian mining companies Australian Strategic Materials and Blackstone Minerals Ltd. Tuan and Dunham had also met with officials from the state of Nevada and the Department of Energy to discuss plans to bring the separation technology to the U.S. through VTRE. Both were «enthusiastic» about the proposal, which ultimately led to the signing of the transfer agreement, according to Dunham.
The arrest also came as Vietnam prepared to auction the Dong Pao mine. VTRE, backed by Western partners, was the only qualified bidder, according to Dunham.
This year, Tuan pleaded guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. He’ll spend 16 years in prison with a fine of $10 million, but his advocates say he was «coerced.» Huong was sentenced to six years in prison.
«We believe these charges to be manipulated, charges that were founded by Vietnamese state actors who have realigned themselves with China,» said Dunham. «He was tortured to obtain a guilty plea.»
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Fox News Digital could not independently verify this claim. The State Department documents credible reports of arbitrary arrests, torture and inhumane treatment by authorities, affecting both political detainees and others in custody. Medical neglect and forced confessions are frequently reported.
Tuan’s advocates say the company he was purchasing ore from, Thai Duong, refused to provide invoices at the actual rate VTRE was paying for ore. It only provided invoices that claimed it was selling ore at a lower rate, reducing its taxable income.
According to Dunham, Thai Duong refused to issue invoices reflecting the actual sale price to VTRE, allegedly to avoid environmental, natural resource and corporate income taxes, obligations that fell on Thai Duong, not Tuan.
Tuan was faced with a choice: accept the lower-rate invoices and make up the tax discrepancies with his own money or allow his state-funded minerals project, and in turn, his business, to collapse, per Dunham.
Though Tuan was convicted on criminal charges, Dunham said the violation of accounting regulations lacks evidence of criminal intent.
«Even if he were guilty of an accounting issue, it’s not something that is criminally liable for what they’re trying to do. No place in Vietnam has there ever been an issue with this type of sentencing. It’s totally unheard of. Typically you would pay a fine and that’s it.»
«He is the only individual outside of China that has a fully integrated rare earth company that’s from mining to metallization; in other words, from digging it out of the ground to the manufacturing of magnets.»
China dominates the global rare earths market. (Reuters)
Tuan was also convicted of smuggling rare earth materials, but customs documents show clearance of 63 shipments of heavy rare earth oxide mixtures under tax code 2846, which corresponds to rare earth compounds. The court misclassified the exports under tax code 2530 (raw ore), to falsely claim they were illegal, according to Dunham.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security’s investigation concluded that customs officers who signed the 63 export declarations for VTRE verified Tuan’s compliance.
China’s crackdown since then has only accelerated. Minerals experts have been ordered to surrender their passports to prevent them from sharing any technology outside the country. Beijing has tightened controls on exports of rare earths, prompting major concerns from within the U.S. defense industry. While China allowed them to flow again during trade negotiations with the Trump administration, they remain banned for defense purposes.
According to Dunham, VTRE has developed the technology to produce heavy rare earth oxides from xenotime, monazite and ion-absorption clay at a purity of 95% through a solvent extraction system. The technology was capable of processing diverse ore types and recycling NdFeB magnets.
Requests for assistance from the U.S. government have not been fruitful, according to Tuan’s advocates.
Tuan is essentially cut off from his family and lawyers. He’s seen family members around five times since his arrest nearly two years ago.
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«We are deeply concerned about his physical and mental well-being,» the source said. «He is mentally resilient. He continues to believe the truth will eventually come to light.»
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House, State Department, Chinese Embassy and Vietnamese Embassy for comment.
china,tech,defense,geopolitics,politics,asia world regions
INTERNACIONAL
El uso de biocombustibles ayuda a estabilizar los precios en Brasil pese al shock petrolero por Irán
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What would you say if one body of Congress didn’t take a formal roll call vote on a major piece of legislation – yet passed it at 2:19 on a Friday morning?
Would you try to outdo your colleagues across the Capitol Rotunda with some Congressional chicanery of your own? Perhaps by passing an equally important version of the same bill – while officially sidestepping a direct up/down vote on the measure – at 11:28 p.m. on that same Friday night.
That’s what happened late last week. The Senate scored approval from all 100 senators to pass a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year – but did it on a voice vote at 2:19 a.m. Friday with only five senators in the chamber.
House Republicans scoffed at this. So they passed their own bill – to fund all of DHS – just before the witching hour Friday. But technically, the House didn’t even vote directly on the legislation itself. The House voted to approve a «rule» (which manages debate for bills). With adoption of that rule, the House «deemed» the underlying DHS funding measure as passed.
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The Senate managed to net the approval of 100 senators to pass a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security for the remainder of the fiscal year – but did it on a voice vote at 2:19 am Friday with only five senators in the chamber. (Emma Woodhead/Fox News Digital)
But despite all of this, the House and Senate weren’t aligned. They hadn’t approved the same bill. And despite the parliamentary antics, House Republicans then implored the Senate to pass the measure it approved Friday night on Monday morning – without a roll call vote and with just two senators in the chamber.
If you followed all of that, that is exactly what’s unfolded on Capitol Hill the past few days as lawmakers struggled to end the six-week Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
It was clear early Thursday evening that there wasn’t a path in the Sente to approve a partisan GOP bill to fund DHS after a lengthy roll call vote which started in the afternoon.
But something was afoot.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MAKES MAJOR MOVE TO RELIEVE ‘UNFAIR BURDEN’ ON DHS WORKERS AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON
Congress was staring at a 15-day recess for Easter and Passover on Friday. Failure to address the crisis now meant that lawmakers would leave town until the middle of April – extending the shutdown until then as airport lines swelled.
So Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., got to work on something which could pass the Senate – and potentially pass the House – before everyone abandoned Washington for the break.
Thune suggested earlier in the week that the Senate usually has to get «to Thursday» before frozen positions may begin to thaw. He was right. There was a corridor for the Senate to approve a bipartisan bill to tackle most of the funding crisis at DHS. So Thune’s charge late Thursday night and into the wee hours of Friday morning was not necessarily to persuade bipartisan senators to support the bill he was putting on the floor. But instead, Thune’s goal was to coax skeptical senators not to object and blow the whole thing up.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., hatched a plan for something that could pass the Senate before Washington was abandoned for the Easter Recess. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
There’s something called a «hotline» in the Senate. Any time the leadership wants to set up a series of votes, make particular amendments in order and perhaps allocate wedges of time to debate, it sends around a «hotline» to all 100 senators. If any senator objects, they let the leadership know. This streamlines the process ahead of time. It also ensures that senators aren’t blindsided by something called a «unanimous consent» request. Unanimous consent requests, or «UC’s,» happen all the time in the Senate.
One of the most powerful tools in the Senate is «unanimous consent.» If you obtain the «unanimous consent» of all 100 senators, you can make the sun rise in the west. But all it takes is one objection to block a UC – even if all other 99 senators agree.
The behind the scenes hotline takes care of this in advance. Any senator could object and block Thune’s proposal to fund most of DHS. But there shouldn’t be any problem if he cleared it with all 100 senators offstage in advance.
That’s why Thune went to the floor at 2:19 a.m. Friday. Not a single senator flagged his proposal. And so the South Dakota Republican went to the floor with a team of five senators – and passed the bill. Not by UC. But by something called a «voice vote. Those in favor shout yea. Those who oppose holler nay. The louder side wins. The Senate passed the bill. There was no roll call vote.
HOUSE GOP RAMS THROUGH NEW DHS FUNDING PLAN WITH SHUTDOWN FAR FROM OVER
So, this wasn’t something snuck by in the dead of night on the sly. If any senator had a reservation, they could have flagged it. Or better yet, come down to the floor at 2:19 a.m. and contested it. In short, there were 100 senators, 100 chiefs of staff, 100 legislative directors and 100 counsels who should have known about Thune’s plan. That’s a universe of at least 400 people – if not more. So, this wasn’t an episode of someone pulling a fast one.
By morning, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he «opposed this bill.» Same with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Well, that’s fine. But no one objected nor pushed back on the hotline. No one went down to the floor to demand a roll call vote – or even argued that the Senate couldn’t do anything because there wasn’t a quorum present to conduct business. So anything said by Republican senators upset about the bill were simply academic or rhetorical objections. If those senators truly opposed the bill, they missed their opportunity to do something about it.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., even signaled support for the bill. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
It was thought that the House might take up the bill – reluctantly – the next day to end most of the shutdown and pay TSA workers. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., signaled support. So did Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. Granted, liberal Democrats might oppose the bill because there weren’t changes at ICE. But the bill probably would have passed with some Republicans and lots of Democrats. In fact, there may have been more Democratic yeas than Republican yeas. That would have been toxic for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., lost his gavel over moving a bipartisan bill to avoid a shutdown in the fall of 2023.
So by Friday afternoon, Johnson strenuously lodged his opposition to the Senate bill.
«Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,» said Johnson, noting that the Senate plan left out funding for ICE and the Border Patrol. «This gambit that was done last night is a joke. I’m quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.»
In other words, were they not dialed in on the hotline?
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO WHAT TO EXPECT ON DHS FUNDING WHEN THE SENATE MEETS MONDAY
Yours truly questioned the Speaker, asking why he and Thune weren’t on the same page. Johnson accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. of being behind the bill. I pointed out that Thune «was the engineer behind this.»
«I wouldn’t call John Thune the engineer of this,» said Johnson.
«He didn’t have the accept it,» I countered.
«Let me answer the question, Chad,» sighed an exasperated Johnson.
So the House forged ahead and passed its own bill to fully fund DHS Friday night. Some House Republicans then expected the Senate to break custom and pass its bill – by unanimous consent – during a brief pro forma session Monday. In other words, House Republicans ripped the Senate for what it did early Friday morning. But those same House Republicans wanted senators to approve THEIR bill on Monday the same way they criticized the Senate for passing its bill on Friday.
Note that there was no hotline for the House bill at that point.
«We’d love to see them do that,» said Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., on Friday.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said he «wouldn’t call John Thune the engineer» behind the bill. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
But Democrats dispatched a watchdog to guard the floor against any possible GOP chicanery as the Senate met for 31 seconds with meager attendance.
The Senate gaveled in. The Senate gaveled out. Nothing happened.
«I was there to object,» said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. «I was here just in case there were some shenanigans.»
Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., called it «insane» that Senate Republicans «didn’t even try» to pass the House bill. But the lone Senate Republican on duty said the presence of Coons doomed that to failure.
«We don’t have consent yet,» said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who presided over the session. «They declined. Obviously Sen. Coons was there to do that.»
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But by Wednesday, the bill which Johnson trashed Friday afternoon was on its way to passage. Despite a sea of opposition from conservative Republicans, the House would accept the Senate bill and end most of the DHS shutdown. The Earth shifted. President Trump was fine with this. Suddenly, Johnson and Thune were on the same page.
So the Republican House would eat what the Senate originally cooked up early Friday morning. And the House would likely approve it with lots of Republicans spread around the country. But like Senate Republicans early Friday morning, no one would likely return to block it.
And by now, this wasn’t something engineered in the dead of night that only 400 people knew about. The entire country was more than aware what happened.
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El ejército estadounidense intensifica sus esfuerzos para obtener un mayor acceso a Groenlandia, una clara señal de que el interés del presidente Donald Trump por la enorme isla ártica no ha disminuido.
Estados Unidos está negociando con Dinamarca el acceso a tres bases adicionales en Groenlandia –incluidas dos previamente abandonadas por los estadounidenses–, lo que supondría la primera expansión estadounidense allí en décadas, según un alto mando del Pentágono, el general Gregory Guillot.
Leé también: Lo que Donald Trump no dice sobre Groenlandia: historia, riquezas y el sueño de construir una Cúpula Dorada
Guillot, jefe del Comando Norte de Estados Unidos, declaró ante los legisladores en una audiencia del Congreso a mediados de marzo que el ejército quería “un mayor acceso a diferentes bases en toda Groenlandia, dada la creciente amenaza y la importancia estratégica de Groenlandia”.
“Estoy trabajando con nuestro departamento y con otros para intentar desarrollar más puertos y más aeródromos, lo que proporcionará más opciones a nuestro secretario y al presidente, en caso de que los necesitemos en el Ártico”, añadió Guillot.
La solicitud coloca a Dinamarca en una situación delicada. Groenlandia es un territorio semiautónomo que forma parte del reino danés desde hace más de 300 años. Trump, por su parte, se ha obsesionado con adquirir Groenlandia y, durante meses, amenazó con usar la fuerza antes de ceder en enero.
El Gobierno danés ha invocado un pacto de defensa danés-estadounidense de 1951 para hacer frente a las amenazas de Trump y ha señalado que Estados Unidos ya tiene un amplio acceso militar.
Los funcionarios estadounidenses ahora utilizan ese mismo acuerdo para trazar planes de expansión. Los expertos afirman que Dinamarca puede hacer poco para frenarlos, aunque la confianza entre Estados Unidos y Dinamarca se haya visto sacudida, si no es que rota.
La capitana de corbeta Teresa Meadows, portavoz del Comando Norte de Estados Unidos, afirmó que los planificadores militares tenían en el punto de mira las localidades de Narsarsuaq, en el sur de Groenlandia, que cuenta con un puerto de aguas profundas, y Kangerlussuaq, en el suroeste de Groenlandia, que ya dispone de una larga pista capaz de recibir aviones de gran tamaño.
Ambos lugares habían sido bases estadounidenses durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial y la Guerra Fría, pero fueron cedidos a las autoridades danesas y groenlandesas después de que los estadounidenses abandonaran Narsarsuaq en la década de 1950 y Kangerlussuaq en la de 1990. Gran parte de su infraestructura militar ha sido desmantelada, aunque ambos emplazamientos aún cuentan con pequeños aeropuertos en funcionamiento.
Los funcionarios del Pentágono no especificaron cuántas tropas se enviarían a la isla. Guillot indicó que el ejército necesita bases para soldados de operaciones especiales y “capacidades marítimas”.
Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuando Dinamarca fue ocupada por los nazis, Estados Unidos ayudó a defender Groenlandia. Envió miles de soldados y abrió más de una decena de bases. Mantuvo muchas de ellas operativas durante la Guerra Fría. En la actualidad, solo queda una base activa: una remota instalación de defensa antimisiles con unos pocos cientos de soldados.
Trump parece decidido a cambiar eso. Sus amenazas del año pasado de “conseguir” Groenlandia, “de un modo u otro”, desencadenaron una crisis en Europa. Esa crisis se ha calmado, por ahora, ya que el presidente se ha visto absorbido por la guerra en Irán. Pero muchos europeos, incluida la líder de Dinamarca, Mette Frederiksen, temen que Trump no haya renunciado a adquirir la gigantesca isla cubierta de hielo, lo que podría dejar a Dinamarca acorralada de nuevo.
Hasta ahora, las conversaciones sobre la ampliación de la base parecen ir sobre ruedas. Guillot citó el acuerdo de 1951 durante su testimonio ante el Congreso, y cuando los legisladores demócratas le preguntaron si Dinamarca o Groenlandia habían puesto algún obstáculo, respondió que no.
“Han sido socios muy, muy comprensivos”, dijo el general.
A diferencia de lo que ha sugerido Trump, Guillot dijo: “En realidad no necesitamos un nuevo tratado. Es muy completo y, francamente, muy favorable para nuestras operaciones o posibles operaciones en Groenlandia”.
Leé también: Detrás del vértigo que generó Trump con su reclamo de Groenlandia, hay una estrategia que empezó a fallar
El plan de expansión sigue envuelto en el secreto. El Departamento de Estado se negó a emitir comentarios, al igual que el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Dinamarca y la oficina del primer ministro de Groenlandia. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, primer ministro de Groenlandia, junto a la premier danesa Mette Frederiksen en una conferencia de prensa en Copenhague el 13 de enero de 2026. (Foto: Tom Little/REUTERS)
No está claro cómo reaccionarán los groenlandeses, la mayoría de los cuales son indígenas inuits. El sentimiento antiestadounidense ha ido en aumento en la isla, que cuenta con menos de 60.000 habitantes. A principios de este año estallaron protestas contra Trump y varios groenlandeses entrevistados expresaron su preocupación por la llegada de más tropas estadounidenses.
“Mucha gente no quiere más militares en Groenlandia, pero si eso es lo que deciden, no hay nada que podamos hacer”, dijo Anso Lauritzen, que dirige un centro de trineos tirados por perros en el oeste de Groenlandia.
Agnetha Mikka Petersen, una residente jubilada de Nuuk, la capital, dijo que la perspectiva de una mayor presencia estadounidense la hace sentir “inquieta”.
“No me gusta nada”, afirmó.
El acuerdo de defensa de 1951 y su actualización de 2004 otorgan a los estadounidenses una posición de fuerza. Antes de realizar cualquier cambio importante en su presencia militar, se supone que Estados Unidos debe “consultar e informar” a las autoridades de Dinamarca y Groenlandia. Los expertos afirman que eso significa que Estados Unidos puede hacer prácticamente lo que quiera y comunicárselo a los daneses y groenlandeses más tarde.
“Dinamarca y Groenlandia pueden, en principio, decir que no a Estados Unidos, pero en la práctica nunca se hace”, afirmó Ulrik Pram Gad, investigador sénior del Instituto Danés de Estudios Internacionales. “Porque si lo hacen, Estados Unidos puede presentar el control de Dinamarca y Groenlandia sobre la isla como un riesgo para la seguridad y argumentar que él mismo debería asumir el control”.
*Por Jeffrey Gettleman, corresponsal internacional radicado en Londres y que cubre sucesos mundiales. Ha trabajado para el Times por más de 20 años.
Eric Schmitt es corresponsal de seguridad nacional para el Times. Ha informado sobre asuntos militares y de antiterrorismo de Estados Unidos durante más de tres décadas.
The New York Times, groenlandia
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