When a country like the PRC decides to invest in gaining a global stranglehold over rare earths and other strategic supply lines, and nearly all other rare earth refiners give up and stop production because China does it cheaper, then 'the free market' you worship blindly, has been played, and captured.

USA today cannot fight a war of any scale and duration because it lacks supply of rare earths. USA is unlikely to regain a meaningful quantity of independent rare earth supply for at least decade...and even then it will come at massive cost in terms of government subsidies that will need to be paid to gain such independent supply capacity.

China has gained the upper hand strategically by having a more focused and determined central government while USA has lost due to over reliance upon the free market.

A mixed economy, when managed diligently can be more effective than Laissez-faire.

An economy is not just an isolated market where individuals compete, but rather it exists in the global environment where government compete for commodities, markets, technology, human and monetary capital and, push come to shave, military strength.

Chinas mercantile mixed economy model has crippled US capitalism by dominating global trade and by gaining strategic monopoly over rare earths and other supply chains.