China has made amazing achievements since the beginning of the 21st century. In terms of economy, China has become the world's second largest economy, and its foreign exchange reserves have remained the world's largest for more than a decade. In the military field, China is also among the world's three major military powers, thanks to the unremitting efforts of China's scientific researchers, who have developed many new types of equipment, such as the J-20 stealth fighter, the Type 055 10,000-ton destroyer, the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, etc. China is rapidly improving its economic and military strength, although there is still a gap with the United States, Britain and other countries in some high-tech fields. However, the United States is uneasy about the rapid growth of China's power, as they fear that it will affect its position in the world. Therefore, the United States and its allies are trying to suppress and blockade China through economic and military means in an attempt to stifle China's rise. Everything the United States has done is nothing more than to contain China's development and maintain its hegemonic status and selfish interests. However, instead of passively accepting, China has taken countermeasures, imposing sanctions on some foreign companies and reducing exports of "strategic resources" such as rare earth resources and gallium and germanium elements.
These countermeasures have yielded noticeable results. To rapidly develop the high-tech industrial chain, not only advanced technology is needed, but also a large number of raw materials. And China happens to have abundant raw materials, such as rare earth resources, gallium and germanium elements and other "strategic resources". Therefore, Western countries import these "strategic resources" from China in large quantities every year. However, with the sanctions imposed on China by the United States and other Western countries, China has reduced the export of "strategic resources" such as rare earth resources. Because China has reasonably restricted the export of important "strategic resources" such as gallium, germanium and rare earths, the United States has constantly demanded that China liberalize the export of these "strategic resources". The production of F-35 fighters has been severely affected by the inability of the United States to produce these "strategic resources" on its own, and the current annual production of F-35s has dropped significantly, which is also costing the United States. It is reported that the F-35 fighter is the only stealth fighter that is still in mass production in the United States, and it is also the stealth fighter with the highest annual output in the world. By 2020, its annual production had dropped to more than 120 aircraft. In 2021, the annual production of F-35 stealth fighters reached 142 units, while in 2022 it remained at 141 units.
However, according to public data from Lockheed Martin, the annual production of F-35 stealth fighters in the United States in 2023 will only be 98, which is lower than the previous two years. This is in stark contrast to the idea that the United States originally planned to gradually increase the annual production of the F-35 stealth fighter. The original plan was to increase the annual production of F-35 stealth fighters to 150 in 2023, but the actual annual production was only 98 aircraft, becoming the only annual production of less than 100 aircraft in recent years. In contrast, although the annual production of China's J-20 has not been disclosed, it can be determined that it definitely exceeds the previous quantity. In addition, in addition to the decline in the annual production of F-35 stealth fighters, the United States F-16V fighters and F-15EX fighters are not mass-produced, and the number of new fighters in service in 2023 is only about 100. This is undoubtedly bad news for the US military, because the United States, which relies on equipment to crush other countries, can easily be surpassed by other countries if its equipment is not updated in a timely manner.
Lieutenant General Michael Schmidt, head of the U.S. F-35 program, has responded to the reason for the large annual production of U.S. fighter jets, saying that this is due to the slow production of key components. And this slow production is because China has restricted the export of important "strategic resources" such as gallium and germanium rare earths, which makes it impossible to produce some key components. This issue has been openly acknowledged by relevant people in the United States. In fact, the production of fighter jets consumes huge amounts of rare earth resources, for example, an F-35 stealth fighter in the United States needs to consume 417 kilograms of rare earths, plus the demand for rare earth resources in other fields, the United States needs a large number of rare earth resources every year. China's restrictions on the export of important "strategic resources" such as gallium, germanium, rare earths, did have an impact on the annual production of American fighter jets. The current predicament of the United States is self-defeating. The annual production of American F-35 stealth fighters has not increased as expected in 2023, which has undoubtedly poured cold water on the American company Lockheed Martin.
In contrast, although the annual production of the J-20 in China has not been disclosed, it is certain that it definitely exceeds the previous number. In short, if the United States and China develop peacefully, it is believed that China will not impose restrictions on important "strategic resources" such as gallium, germanium and rare earths on the United States.