The Unacknowledged Reality of US Military Dependence on China
The US wants to destroy China and yet official reports show persistent dependence on Chinese materials dating back over a decade.
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The global landscape has undergone significant change, and one of the primary groups adversely affected is the Western taxpayer. For years, this demographic was presented with a narrative of economic success and democratic integrity, a narrative that, in hindsight, primarily served the interests of a small, powerful elite. Many remain unaware or in denial of the extent to which lower-tier political and institutional figures have been compromised, often through coercive means including criminal, sexual, and reputational blackmail. This structural manipulation has led to a profound disconnect between the governed and those who govern, raising serious questions about accountability and democratic legitimacy.
Without being speculative or alarmist, the United States relies heavily on a foreign rival for critical military supplies. The evidence comes from the Pentagon, American defence contractors, and official US government records. The US military now relies on China for essential components, raw materials, and finished parts needed to maintain and develop high-end weapon systems. These systems include the F-35 fighter jet, the B-1B bomber, Hellfire missiles, and night vision optics. For each of these items, China supplies inputs that cannot be sourced domestically without massive cost and delay.
(Credit: Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party)
The most revealing comments came from Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes in 2023. He stated his company had “several thousand suppliers” in China. He further described talk of decoupling from China as “impossible.” Raytheon is not a fringe player at all as it is one of the largest military manufacturers in the world, supplying critical systems used across the US armed forces. According to Hayes, more than 95 percent of rare earth materials or metals come from, or are processed in, China. There is currently no viable alternative in sight.
These are not new vulnerabilities as the Pentagon was already aware of its dependency on Chinese materials more than a decade ago. In 2012, the US Department of Defense asked for a legal exemption to allow Chinese-sourced materials in the F-35 stealth fighter. Without the exemption, the programme would have stalled entirely. There were no issues with safety, performance, or supply reliability. The objection was solely based on the Chinese origin of the materials.
By 2013, further dependencies became public. A report revealed that Northrop Grumman and Honeywell were allowed to use Chinese-made magnets in the F-35’s radar system and landing gear. Removing these parts and replacing them with American-made versions would have cost $10.8 million and taken 25,000 man-hours. The components functioned reliably with no recorded failures or defects reported. Removing them would have delayed aircraft delivery without offering any technical advantage. In the same year, the Pentagon reported that night vision goggles contained lanthanum sourced from China and the US defence industry had no alternative domestic source. In 2014, Chinese-made components were identified in the B-1B bomber and F-16 fighter jet assembly process. Production continued as normal, with no changes made to sourcing or design.
(Credit: China In Focus)
The Hellfire missile system required a chemical compound called butanetriol and that as well the only supply for years came from China In 2014, the US government funded the construction of a dedicated facility to manufacture it domestically and that factory was not built for performance improvement but was created to avoid sole reliance on Chinese industry.
Solid rocket motors also exposed similar issues as in 2018, the Pentagon flagged concerns over Dechlorane, a chemical used in many propulsion systems. Although sourced through a Belgian supplier, the materials originated in China. A more advanced form, Dechlorane Plus, was declared toxic and banned under the Stockholm Convention. Most of the world, including China, signed and ratified the ban but as is typical, the United States refused to sign the agreement. It chose to preserve military supply lines rather than comply with global health and safety regulations.
(Credit: @balajis)
Electronics form another critical vulnerability and in 2018, US government sources acknowledged that over 90 percent of the world’s printed circuit boards were manufactured in China and Taiwan. These items are embedded in nearly every military system, from navigation tools to drone control systems. A New York company, Aventura Technologies, was later prosecuted in 2019 for selling Chinese-made equipment to the US military while falsely claiming domestic production. The deception was discovered when Chinese characters were found on the internal circuit boards.
(Credit: @balajis)
The supply chain issues persisted into 2022 and in September that year, the Pentagon had to suspend F-35 deliveries after discovering that Honeywell components included cobalt and samarium alloys sourced from China. The US government issued another waiver to avoid halting production entirely. No redesign was ordered, and the aircraft specifications remained exactly the same. Maintaining production schedules took precedence over replacing the foreign-sourced materials involved.
The United States has built its military posture around technological advantage and the ability to project force globally. That posture now rests on components and materials provided by a state officially treated as its chief adversary. The US defence sector has spent the past two decades expanding its dependency on a country it accuses of long-term military and economic hostility.
The American political class presents China as a strategic threat, but continues to integrate Chinese goods across its highest-value defence projects. The Department of Defense, Government Accountability Office, and major defence contractors have all acknowledged that reliance on Chinese materials is widespread and long-standing. Public records and internal reports confirm the issue spans multiple weapons systems and supply lines.
This position is not mirrored by China. The Chinese approach is based on manufacturing, development, and trade expansion and it builds and sells without focusing on ideological alignment. The United States prioritises weapons procurement and military spending but lacks the domestic capacity to build independently so the two models are not symmetrical.
American political rhetoric calls for decoupling, but the industrial reality shows continued reliance. Rare earth elements, strategic chemicals, high-performance alloys, and electronic systems continue to flow from Chinese factories into the American war machine. Removing Chinese materials from US weapons programmes remains technically possible but financially prohibitive. In case after case, military planners have opted to maintain the existing supply lines. Official reports have identified the same Chinese supply dependencies repeatedly since 2012. No lasting changes have been implemented across procurement, manufacturing, or supply chain policy. Over a decade later, no viable domestic alternatives have replaced Chinese sources. Legal exemptions and procurement waivers have become normal operating procedure.
In effect, the United States has outsourced a portion of its national defence production to the very country it intends to contain. It cannot conduct modern military operations without access to Chinese resources. Policymakers, defence officials, and corporate executives are all aware of this fact and no meaningful structural change has been implemented, well, its impossible now.
The result is a contradiction that remains unresolved. The United States is preparing for potential military conflict with a country it continues to rely upon for the materials necessary to fight that conflict. How crazy is that ?
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Also see "Shooting oneself in both feet"