Mapping China’s strategy for rare earths dominance
China has built a commanding monopoly over rare earths, the seventeen metallic elements that are crucial for modern technologies spanning from energy to defense. Through decades of strategic state intervention, China now controls over half of global mining production and 90 percent of separation and refining capacity.
This dominance has been enabled by a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach that includes the Communist Party, the state apparatus, the military complex, industry, and research institutions. These entities work together to implement a broad range of policies that ensure global control, such as price controls, tax policy, environmental regulations, standards setting, foreign policy, defense strategy, industry planning, and research and development. These labyrinthine policy- and market-making processes add layers of complexity to the already opaque inner workings of the Chinese state.
This report by Craig Hart demystifies these interconnected systems by:
- outlining China’s strategic objectives
- identifying the key rare earths stakeholders in government and industry
- unraveling the complex web of policies that enable its global market dominance
- exploring potential opportunities for the West to develop a counterstrategy to develop its own rare earths supply chains
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Explore interactive graphics mapping China’s key rare earths stakeholders, system of direct and indirect subsidies, and the role of Belt and Road investments.
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About the author
Craig A. Hart was a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. He is a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University.
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The Global Energy Center develops and promotes pragmatic and nonpartisan policy solutions designed to advance global energy security, enhance economic opportunity, and accelerate pathways to net-zero emissions.
Image: Miners are seen at the Bayan Obo mine containing rare earth minerals, in Inner Mongolia, China July 16, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer