【Text by Observers Network, Zhang Jingjuan】"Although both political parties in the United States are pushing for economic decoupling between the U.S. and China, its defense industry remains heavily dependent on Chinese suppliers." Recently, the U.S. defense intelligence company Govini once again targeted weaknesses in the U.S. defense supply chain, continuing to hype up the "China threat."
Hong Kong English media South China Morning Post reported on July 1 that Govini's latest research shows that in 2024, Chinese companies accounted for about 9.3% of the primary suppliers (direct suppliers) in major defense projects across nine key areas in the U.S.
According to the website Breaking Defense, Govini's CEO Dougherty (Tara Murphy Dougherty) told a reporter last week (June 26) that the current U.S. defense supply chain is extremely vulnerable and lacks resilience, with very close ties to foreign suppliers, "we are trying to quantify this."
Govini pointed out in a report that after analyzing spending data from the U.S. Department of Defense in fields such as aviation, maritime, C4I (command, control, communication, computer, and intelligence), mission support, nuclear, missiles and ammunition, ground, missile defense, and space, researchers found that the U.S. reliance on Chinese suppliers was highest in the missile defense sector, at 11.1%, while it was lowest in the nuclear field, at 7.8%.
However, among foreign suppliers in the nuclear field, Chinese suppliers were the most numerous, totaling 534, while Canada and the UK, the U.S. allies, had 405 and 366 respectively. At the same time, the study found that the number of Chinese suppliers in this field increased by 45.5% compared to the previous year.

Proportions of suppliers in nine key areas Breaking Defense
Dougherty said that China may always play a certain role in the Pentagon's supply chain, "I'm not even sure whether removing China from the supply chain is correct."
The report also highlighted other aspects of reliance on China, stating that many weapon systems depend on critical minerals, the production of which is mainly dominated by China. The report stated, "China's recent restrictions on exports of critical minerals highlight this vulnerability."
To safeguard national security and interests, China's export control measures have been continuously upgraded.
In July 2023, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued an announcement implementing export controls on gallium and germanium-related items. In August 2024, the two departments jointly issued an announcement deciding to implement export controls on certain antimony and super-hard material-related items.
In February of this year, the two departments jointly issued an announcement implementing export controls on tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum, and indium-related items, and implemented export controls on 25 rare metal products and their technologies, including ammonium paratungstate.
In early April, just two days after the Trump administration announced imposing "reciprocal tariffs" on Chinese goods, China introduced a series of precise countermeasures. In addition to increasing tariffs, seven categories of medium and heavy rare earth items, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium, were added to the new batch of export control lists for the U.S., limiting the U.S. access to key rare earth materials used in missile production, batteries, and semiconductors.
Govini analyzed the weaknesses in the U.S. defense supply chain in a report in mid-April, stating that more than 1,900 U.S. weapon systems rely on critical minerals from China. The report indicated that China's enhanced export controls on critical minerals could impact over three-quarters of the U.S. weapons supply chain.
Researchers found that 80,000 weapon parts used antimony, gallium, germanium, tungsten, or tellurium, all of which are globally supplied by China, "which means that nearly 78% of the Pentagon's weapon systems could be affected."
In recent years, the U.S. has frequently exaggerated the so-called "China threat." An American retired veteran published an article in the Congressional Herald earlier this year claiming that the U.S. has actually outsourced its military supply chain to China. He also urged the incoming U.S. President Trump to urge Washington and the defense industry to ensure so-called supply chain security. A U.S. intelligence agency's report released in March also described China as the greatest military and cyber threat to the U.S.
In response to these actions by the U.S., a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry once stated that the U.S. repeatedly issues irresponsible, biased reports, spreads the "China threat theory," and stirs up great power competition, which is merely an excuse to contain and suppress China and maintain its own hegemony. As the saying goes, "He who has a hammer sees every problem as a nail." The Chinese side urges the U.S. not to mirror China with its own hegemonic logic, not to view Sino-U.S. relations with outdated Cold War thinking, and not to use strategic competition as an excuse to contain and suppress China. It calls on the U.S. to stop hyping up the China threat and to take concrete actions to promote the stable, healthy, and sustainable development of Sino-U.S. relations.
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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7522372522088595983/
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