When Biotech Purifies Rare Earths—Outdeveloping China in Its Key Industry

When Biotech Purifies Rare Earths—Outdeveloping China in Its Key Industry

When China cut off rare earth exports to the United States, most rare earth companies scrambled to copy China's technology. Curtis Wu, founder and CEO of Maglut Heavy Industries, had a different idea: steal a page from biotech instead. Drawing on his years in the biotech industry, Curtis saw that chromatography—the same precision purification technique used to manufacture cancer drugs—could replace the dirty, repetitive solvent-extraction method that China has had a monopoly on for decades. In this episode, Curtis walks Terri through the science, the supply chain vulnerability that Ford's production shutdown made undeniable, and why he believes the United States doesn't need to out-China China—it needs to out-innovate it. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to terri.wu@epochtimes.com [terri.wu@epochtimes.com]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch [http://www.ratethispodcast.com/chinawatch]

Rare Knowledge About Rare Earths—the Hope, Solutions, and Imminent Threat

China controls the rare-earth chokepoint that nearly every modern industry depends on: from smartphones and EVs to missiles and fighter jets. Rare earths are a tiny market—just $20-30 billion globally—yet they sit beneath trillions of dollars in downstream value, making them one of the most powerful leverage points in U.S.–China relations. In this episode, Terri Wu sits down with Carl Coward, co-founder and managing partner of Neoterra, to discuss his vision for the West to break free of its rare-earth dependence on China. Carl breaks down the distinct, highly technical steps in this supply chain, why separating rare earths is so hard outside China, and why he believes only a vertically integrated, profitable Western supply chain offers a durable solution. They also dig into China's "withhold and flood" playbook that has crushed foreign competitors cycle after cycle, and what's at stake as Xi Jinping weighs a Sept. 24 visit to Washington. Finally, Coward gets personal. He reveals why a self-described contrarian with two decades in mining has staked the rest of his career—and a deadline measured in his young daughter's school years—on solving this problem. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to terri.wu@epochtimes.com [terri.wu@epochtimes.com]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch [http://www.ratethispodcast.com/chinawatch]

A Strange Email, a Five Eyes Warning, and the New Front Line of Chinese Espionage

It started with a strange email: an unsolicited invitation for host Terri Wu to become a "senior geopolitical analyst" for a shadowy "defense advisory trust"—confidential, decoupled from her reporting, and sent from a personal Gmail. Then came the Five Eyes "Safeguarding Our Secrets" bulletin, warning that foreign intelligence services court exactly the people who get pitches like that: journalists, academics, clearance holders, and military personnel. In this episode, Terri brings the puzzle to two veterans of the China file — former State, Defense, and CIA officer Nicholas Eftimiades and former State Department diplomat Jim Lewis — to map the CCP's "whole-of-society" playbook: the recent agent prosecutions (Thomas Pauken, Eileen Wang, Linda Sun), the overseas police stations, the quiet pivot to state and local politics, and why Beijing is betting it can simply wait Washington out. The message is blunt: whether or not that email traces back to anyone in particular, you're already on the front line—and there's plenty you can do about it. Our last year's episode with Nick is here [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/china-watch/id1806882216?i=1000742379539]: “How China Spies in America: The Whole-of-Society Model Operation.” Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to terri.wu@epochtimes.com [terri.wu@epochtimes.com]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch [http://www.ratethispodcast.com/chinawatch]

How America Keeps Getting China Wrong—And How China Can Get It Right

Terri sits down with Piero Tozzi, a China expert whose deep roots in both Western and Confucian thought give him a truly rare lens on the U.S.–China competition. In this conversation, they unpack why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never been—and can never be—a normal trading partner or good-faith rival, and how America has been deceived into thinking otherwise, repeatedly, since the 1940s. And they close on something unexpected: the seeds of a peaceful transition to carry China beyond the CCP have been inside Chinese civilization all along. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to terri.wu@epochtimes.com [terri.wu@epochtimes.com]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch [http://www.ratethispodcast.com/chinawatch]

‘Sea Blind’ to China’s Threat, and Waking Up To It

The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment on May 19, charging Chinese shipping container manufacturers with price-fixing their products during the COVID years. As a result, container prices nearly doubled between 2019 and 2024. And a leading defendant saw its profit increase by nearly 100-fold. This case is not an isolated case. Join Terri and maritime historian Salvatore Mercogliano in unpacking China’s evolution in maritime dominance and the U.S. response. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to terri.wu@epochtimes.com [terri.wu@epochtimes.com]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch [http://www.ratethispodcast.com/chinawatch]