India, Sept. 1 -- From the colonial mines of Burma to the industrial hubs of Inner Mongolia, China's dominance over rare earths has transformed these once-obscure metals into tools of geopolitical influence, reshaping global trade, military strategy, and the very architecture of technological power

Who truly commands the foundations of the twenty-first-century economy? Which states possess the leverage to dictate the supply of critical minerals that underpin modern defence systems, renewable energy technologies, and digital infrastructure? How did a single nation come to dominate a market indispensable to the West's industrial and military ambitions?

The story begins in Burma, a region historically endowed with rich deposits of tin, tun...