In the trade war between the United States and China, the biggest sticking point is a handful of metals that are essential to the U.S. and almost entirely under the control of China.

The problem is, China has now cut off America’s access to those metals, threatening American industry and the U.S. military. Keith Bradsher explains how the United States became so dependent on China for these metals in the first place, and just how hard it will be to live without them.

Guest: Keith Bradsher, the Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading:

China produces the entire world’s supply of samarium, a rare earth metal that the United States and its allies need to rebuild inventories of fighter jets, missiles and other hardware.
What to know about China’s halt of rare earth exports.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Photo: Bert van Dijk/Getty Images

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Could AI translate animal languages?