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Exclusive: The Jacob Helberg interview

In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg discusses Washington's efforts to reduce dependence on China in critical minerals and AI supply chains, including the Pax Silica initiative and restrictions on foreign access to Anthropic models.

By Tertius News AI Desk 1 outlet · 2 articles Version 1 Coverage Jul 16–22, 2026 Published Aug 14

Lead

The competition between the United States and China over leadership in artificial intelligence is one of the defining contests of our time, according to Jacob Helberg, the US undersecretary of state for economic affairs. In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Helberg detailed Washington's strategy to rally allies, secure critical mineral supply chains, and exclude China from AI supply chains.

Coverage Comparison

The South China Morning Post, in a three-part series, presented Helberg's remarks across several stories. The first part focused on the ban on foreign access to Anthropic models; the second explored efforts to cut dependence on China for rare earths; the third provided an overview of the AI battle between Washington and Beijing. The framing was consistent with a US-centric perspective on the strategic rivalry.

The interview was published days before US President Donald Trump signed a military supply chain executive order addressing the need to reduce dependence on China for critical minerals. Helberg noted that the order's necessity was already clear to American allies, who had been "put on alert" by China's export controls.

Key Claims

Helberg described the US-China AI competition as one of the defining competitions of our time. He said the US has been working to rally allies and cut dependence on China by securing alternative rare earth and critical mineral supply chains.

According to Helberg, China's export controls on seven rare earth elements, imposed in April of the previous year, have had significant repercussions. He cited Japan and European countries as among those adversely affected by "supply imbalances" that led to factory shutdowns across the developed world, including the United States. Although a temporary US-China truce in October resumed the flow of exports, Japan reportedly continued to face shortages.

Helberg also defended Washington's restrictions on foreign access to Anthropic's advanced AI models. The Department of Commerce barred foreign nationals from using Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models on national security grounds. Anthropic complied with the order, though access was restored three weeks later. Helberg said the process was designed to ensure that AI technology could be released "in a way that is safe and secure for our critical infrastructure and our financial sector."

He also discussed the Pax Silica initiative, which aims to exclude China from AI supply chains. Helberg leads the initiative, which counts 22 other nations plus the European Union as signatories.

How this outlet told it

South China Morning Post as of Jul 22, 2026, 1:15 AM UTC

Framing: US-China competition in AI — informative

Facts Included:

US and China competition in artificial intelligence
US efforts to rally allies and cut dependence on China
China's export controls on rare earth elements
Impact of China's export controls on Japan and European countries
US President Donald Trump's military supply chain executive order

Read the source article →

South China Morning Post as of Jul 16, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC

Framing: US-China AI competition — explanatory

Facts Included:

US ban on foreign access to Anthropic models
Pax Silica initiative
US efforts to exclude China from AI supply chains
Department of Commerce's bar on foreign nationals using Anthropic's models

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimThe US and China are competing in artificial intelligence, which is one of the defining competitions of our time.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 22, 2026, 1:15 AM UTC
ClaimThe US is trying to rally its allies and cut dependence on China by securing alternative rare earth and critical mineral supply chains.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 22, 2026, 1:15 AM UTC
ClaimChina's export controls on rare earth elements have adversely affected Japan and European countries, leading to supply imbalances and factory shutdowns.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 22, 2026, 1:15 AM UTC
ClaimUS President Donald Trump signed a military supply chain executive order to address the need to cut dependence on China for critical minerals.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 22, 2026, 1:15 AM UTC
ClaimThe US has banned foreign access to Anthropic models to safeguard the US and its allies from cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 16, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC
ClaimThe Department of Commerce barred foreign nationals from using Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models on national security grounds.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 16, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC
ClaimThe US is leading the Pax Silica initiative, which aims to exclude China from artificial intelligence supply chains and has 22 other nations, plus the European Union, as signatories.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jul 16, 2026, 3:00 PM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

1 outlet · 3 articles consulted: South China Morning Post 7 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-14