Correct and they are absolutely essential for the manufacture of many modern high tech products such as EVs, microchips and multiple military applications. You cannot have a high tech economy and you cannot wage a modern war without rare earths to build the multitude of high technology products that require rare earths. China has won the trade war and has the west/USA over a barrel because the Chinese government deliberately prioritised a supply chain that is crucial to the modern economic realities. This required huge capital investment to build the refining capacity that is fundamental to the production of rare earths- without the complex and difficult refining processes the raw materials are worthless and China now has a near monopoly on that refining capacity. Free markets did not prioritise refining of rare earths because it is expensive and not highly profitable when looked at in isolation as private enterprise naturally does- it only makes sense when you recognise the strategic importance and power projection significance of controlling the rare earths supply chain- something a=that the Chinese mixed economic model naturally can do but that the crony capitalist west completely failed to do. Free markets are a nonsense in some significant exceptions to the rule.