For too long, the United States has treated China as a difficult trading partner rather than the adversary it is.

Our policy of economic entanglement has enriched Beijing while leaving American families, American farmers and American food security exposed to a communist regime that plays by no rules but its own.

This arrangement has avoided open conflict, but it has enabled the weaponization of the very supply chains we depend on to feed our nation.

While Washington has rightly focused on securing our borders and defending our factories, the Chinese Communist Party has quietly opened a new front in its long war against the United States, this time targeting the raw materials that keep American agriculture alive.

The story begins with sulfur, a mineral most Americans never think about but everyone depends on. Sulfur is a critical input in phosphate fertilizer, the essential tool in producing high-yield crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat, which millions of Americans consume in our food every day. Choke off sulfur, and you choke off American agriculture and most of the food staples we buy in our grocery stores.

Without sulfur, crop yields collapse, food prices skyrocket, and grocery shelves empty out.

America produces roughly 70% of its own sulfur needs. That figure ought to make us self-sufficient. It doesn't. The reality is that the United States ships nearly a quarter of its domestic sulfur production to foreign buyers. Much of it flows directly to the CCP's state-subsidized economy, where it is refined into finished fertilizer that Beijing then refuses to sell back to the world.

What does China do with our sulfur? It hoards it. The CCP subsidizes state-owned enterprises like Yuntianhua Group, then slaps export bans on the fertilizer and sulfuric acid produced inside its borders. China takes our raw materials, refines them into finished product, and refuses to sell that product back to the world.

This isn't trade. It's economic warfare.

The evidence stretches far beyond sulfur. Beijing has spent the last decade cornering the global market for critical minerals. They have dominated the rare earths that power our military hardware, and the gallium and germanium that our semiconductors depend on. We have seen this before. Once China dominates a supply chain, it weaponizes it. Export controls, hoarding and price manipulation follow like clockwork.

The consequences hit Americans directly at the checkout counter. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already choked off half the world's sulfur trade. Global fertilizer prices are climbing. Because foreign buyers like China bid higher for American sulfur, our own refiners have every incentive to sell abroad or charge domestic buyers more. American farmers pay the price. American families pay the price at the grocery store. There should be no pricing crisis on fertilizer in this country when we produce sufficient quantities of the key raw materials right here at home.

President Donald Trump has continually prioritized combating Chinese aggression, and this specific vulnerability — the raw materials that feed our farms — demands relief. The principle is simple: An adversary that takes what it wants from America and gives nothing in return should not enjoy preferential access to our markets or resources.

The solutions are not complicated. First, the Trump administration should use the export control authorities it already has to prohibit Chinese state-owned enterprises from buying American sulfur so long as Beijing maintains export bans on the finished fertilizer the world needs.

Second, Congress should enforce the trade laws already on the books against subsidized foreign monopolies like China that have spent decades engaging in manipulative and deceptive trade practices. Fair trade requires fair enforcement. It is that simple.

Third, Washington should cut the permitting red tape that limits domestic oil refining. Sulfur is a byproduct of the refining process. More American refining capacity means more American sulfur, more supply for our farmers, and more room to compete abroad. It is the rare policy fix that costs the taxpayer nothing.

China has spent the last generation building itself into the most manipulative economic actor on the world stage. It rigs supply chains, subsidizes state-backed communist entities, hoards critical inputs, and drives up prices for American families who depend on the goods our farmers produce. Sulfur is only the latest chapter in that story, but it is one Washington can still rewrite. Deny Beijing the raw materials that fuel its economic aggression, and we deny Beijing the leverage it has spent decades accumulating.

Ken Buck served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015-2024 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district. He now serves as a Fellow with the Independent Center. To find out more about Ken Buck and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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