{"podcast":{"title":"The China in Africa Podcast","slug":"the-china-in-africa-podcast-420743","podcast_index_feed_id":420743,"rss_url":"https://feeds.libsyn.com/500353/rss","website_url":"https://sites.libsyn.com/500353","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/4/a/c/2/4ac2786d5b8804ae88c4a68c3ddbc4f2/9CERZsz4.png","author":"The China-Global South Project","episode_count":300,"summary":"Twice-weekly discussion about China's engagement across Africa and the Global South hosted by journalist Eric Olander and Asia-Africa scholar Cobus van Staden in Johannesburg.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-26T10:18:35.471004+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-china-in-africa-podcast-420743"},"episode":{"title":"How the US Is Trying to Challenge China's Critical Mineral Dominance","slug":"how-the-us-is-trying-to-challenge-china-s-critical-mineral-dominance","published_at":"2026-05-29T00:14:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-china-in-africa-podcast-420743/how-the-us-is-trying-to-challenge-china-s-critical-mineral-dominance","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-china-in-africa-podcast-420743","url":"https://b3f2a027-658f-4f2b-812a-d8c56362e481.libsyn.com/how-the-us-is-trying-to-challenge-chinas-critical-mineral-dominance","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/b3f2a027-658f-4f2b-812a-d8c56362e481/CAP_05292026_Libsyn.mp3?dest-id=4284093","summary":"The U.S. is rapidly reshaping its trade and industrial policies to build new critical mineral supply chains as part of a broader effort to reduce the country's dependence on China for these strategic resources. So far, however, most of Washington's deals have focused primarily on securing access to raw materials such as cobalt, lithium, and rare earths. That alone may not be enough to compete with China, which has spent decades investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the infrastructure, processing capacity, and skilled workforce needed to build resilient supply chains. Zainab Usman, senior research scholar and managing director of international programs at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, recently published a new paper examining how the U.S. is adapting its trade policies to strengthen its critical minerals strategy. She joins Eric and Géraud from Washington to discuss whether these efforts can realistically help the United States narrow the gap with China. 📌 Topics Covered in This Episode America's critical minerals strategy U.S.-China supply chain competition Why extraction alone isn't enough The infrastructure and workforce gap Trade policy as industrial policy Africa's role in the minerals race Can the U.S. catch up to China? Show Notes: United Nations University: The International trade dimensions of the United States critical minerals security strategy by Zainab Usman Bloomberg Originals: The $10 Billion Hunt for the Rocks That Power the World Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions: Assessing the U.S.-China Competition for Minerals Crucial to the Development of Emerging Technologies Join the Discussion: X: @ChinaGSProject | @eric_olander | @christiangeraud Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.co…","meta_description":"The U.S. is rapidly reshaping its trade and industrial policies to build new critical mineral supply chains as part of a broader effort to reduce the coun…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3138,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-china-in-africa-podcast-420743/episodes/how-the-us-is-trying-to-challenge-china-s-critical-mineral-dominance/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-china-in-africa-podcast-420743/how-the-us-is-trying-to-challenge-china-s-critical-mineral-dominance.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}