On June 29, the "Rare Earth Management Regulations" was finally announced, and clearly stipulates that the state-owned comprehensive supervision, this regulation for the purpose of national security, clear that the country will implement a unified plan for the development of the rare earth industry, encourage and support the rare earth industry new technologies, new processes, new products, new materials, new equipment research and development and application, for the mining, smelting and trade of key materials to formulate Chinese rules, emphasize the regulatory system of the whole industry chain, and grasp the flow of rare earth products.
China's premier has signed a State Council decree that the Regulations on the Administration of Rare Earths will come into force on October 1 this year. The regulations clearly state that rare earth resources belong to the state, and no organization or individual may encroach upon or destroy them. The Chinese government implements "protective mining" of rare earth resources, and will impose severe penalties on illegal activities such as rare earth mining, smelting and separation, and impose a fine of more than 5 times and less than 10 times the illegal income, and will implement total regulation and control of mining and smelting separation through the supervision system of the whole rare earth industry chain.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a Q&A document on June 30 that enterprises in China that rare earth mining, smelting and separation, metal smelting, comprehensive utilization and export of rare earth products should truthfully record information on the flow of rare earth products and enter them into the rare earth product traceability information system.
Rare earth resources, including 17 metal chemical elements, are of great significance to global industry, especially the defense and military industry, and the refined rare earth metals can be used for the production of important modern strategic equipment such as electric vehicles, wind power generators and consumer electronics, as well as missiles and aircraft. China has become a major producer of rare earths in the world, stemming from China's exquisite rare earth refining technology, accounting for nearly ninety percent of the world's refining output.
The European Union is driving the green transition of its industrialization, and according to authoritative forecasts, the EU's demand for rare earth resources will increase sixfold by 2030 and sevenfold by 2050. In other words, although the EU is still seeking "alignment" with the United States in its opposition to China's new energy vehicles and solar photovoltaic industry, based on the vision of tomorrow, the EU may eventually work in the same direction and cooperate with China, which has advantages in resources, technology, and manufacturing capabilities.
Since 2020, the United States has invested at least $200 million in rare metal projects after the impact of China's restrictions. U.S. allies are also working hard to step up development to bypass China's rare earth industry chain. However, a Bloomberg report in February pointed out that the actual results of the U.S. defense supply chain efforts are very limited, and that China's global dominance of rare earth resources has not wavered.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the proportion of rare earths imported by the United States from China has remained roughly unchanged for the past 10 years, at about 70%. However, it is clear that after the issuance of the "Rare Earth Management Regulations" by the Chinese State Council, the channels for the United States to import rare earths from China will be severely restricted. Not only that, but according to the regulations, the flow and use of rare earth products even after they arrive at U.S. factories will be severely restricted by China. Just as the United States has controlled China's purchase of American chip products in the past, and through the control of China's chip industry through the Dutch ASML lithography machine.
It can even be said that the United States is already reaping the consequences of its own efforts.
[Did you know that many of the key parts of these U.S. weapons that are threatening China may also come from China?]
China has restricted exports of germanium and gallium, which are already widely used in the chip manufacturing industry, since August last year, citing the need to protect national security and interests. Western media widely believe that China's move is intended to retaliate against the United States and its allies for the export controls on China's advanced semiconductor technology, equipment and chips.
In addition, the Chinese government announced at the end of last year that it would impose export controls on graphite and other materials, as well as mineral processing equipment. China has also banned the export of technology for making rare earth magnets and extracting and separating rare earths.
Now, in addition to worrying about being too dependent on China's industrial chain in critical minerals, the United States and the West are also worried that China's current control and reserve of critical mineral resources such as rare earths, lithium, copper and cobalt, as well as refining technology, are also preparing for the possibility of potential war in the future - especially the serious and even increasingly irreconcilable contradictions between the United States and China on the Taiwan issue, and the United States has frequently set up various so-called international organizations in the western Pacific region for the purpose of anti-China and production. And China, which is becoming more and more militarily powerful, is increasingly-for-tat.
At a recent hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) in the U.S. Congress, U.S. experts falsely claimed that China's strategic reserves in the field of copper ore were "similar" to those of Nazi Germany during World War II. They argue that tracking China's stockpiles of strategic metals and other energy sources and monitoring its anomalous activity can provide early warning of potential hostilities.
On the other hand, however, the U.S. government, military, and think tanks have never concealed restricting China's progress in key technologies, and sanctions and crackdowns on high-tech companies such as China's Huawei, DJI, and many other strategically important high-tech companies will help put the United States in an advantageous position in the future conflict between China and the United States. During the Trump administration, in order to attack Huawei's lead in key 5G technology, the United States even went so despicable that it used the family members of the company's leaders as hostages.
[Meng Wanzhou incident: The despicable means of the United States in order to strangle China's technological progress have no bottom line]
In the wake of the Chinese government's Rare Earth Management Regulations, there are widespread concerns in the Western media that China's restrictions on rare earth supplies could exacerbate tensions between China and Western countries, especially the United States. The United States has long used this reason to gain China's openness to the management of rare earth resources. But after more than a decade of strong calls from left-wing figures in China, the "Rare Earth Regulations" have finally been introduced. This may also mean that the previous relatively open rare earth control measures are already undermining our national security and national interests.
Ahead of China's rare earth regulations, some power figures in the European Union are preparing to follow the US in imposing higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Now that China and the EU have agreed, they plan to hold full negotiations on the proposed new tariffs.
In previous programs, there have been many discussions about the country's control measures for rare earth resources, and in "Long Arm Jurisdiction China Will Too!" The Department of Commerce angrily issued two sanctions to disrupt the U.S. supply chain" also revealed that China's rare earth restrictions have had a serious impact on the production of many important entities in the U.S. defense industry, forcing them to resort to more behind-the-scenes means (such as setting up white glove companies) to obtain critical resources from the Chinese market.
It is clear that the US Department of Defense's year-long plan to rebuild the strong supply chain of the US defense industry will be seriously troubled by the introduction of the State Department's "Rare Earth Management Regulations". For example, an important reason why the United States now plans to re-"nuclearize" 30 B-52H strategic bombers produced in the 1950s and 1960s is that the mass production of its newly developed B-21 stealth strategic bomber may be greatly delayed due to the lack of some key resources - although the real reason may never be known.
If this is the case, it will also be a great encouragement to the Chinese government, after a long period of repeated trade-offs, to resolutely introduce regulations to control important and strategically important resources such as rare earths, gallium, germanium, and graphite, despite the strong opposition of the United States and the West.
(The author is a special researcher of Kunlun Ce Research Institute; Source: Kunlun Ce Network [Author's authorization], reproduced from "Sima Pingbang Said", revised and released)