Four months ago, a dozen academics and researchers from China’s top oil and gas producers issued a warning buried in an academic journal: the nation’s quest for self-sufficiency had a critical weak spot.
The threat they identified was helium, a colorless, odorless gas with a wide range of uses, from regulating temperatures during semiconductor manufacturing to cooling medical scanning devices, testing for leaks in pipelines, and pressurizing space rocket fuel tanks.
The problem was that over 83 percent of the country’s supply came from outside China.
“Because these supply sources are highly vulnerable to geopolitical shifts, the security of the nation’s supply chain