{"id":780728,"date":"2026-07-05T14:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/780728\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T14:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:23:12","slug":"chinas-rare-earth-industry-has-critical-weakness-researchers-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/780728\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s rare earth industry has critical weakness, researchers warn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>China\u2019s dominance in rare earth mining, refining and exports has long been viewed as a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/plus\/article\/3311198\/chinas-rare-earth-dominance-creates-trade-war-leverage?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">strategic advantage<\/a>.But a new study by Chinese researchers argues that the country\u2019s <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3343328\/chinese-premier-tours-rare-earths-production-hub-amid-rising-us-tech-rivalry?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">rare earth industry<\/a> has its own critical weakness.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cChina is not in a leading position in mastering key core technologies in certain fields,\u201d the researchers wrote in the paper.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Published in the latest issue of the Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the study shifts the focus away from resource reserves and production capacity, instead mapping high-end rare earth functional material technologies.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The researchers, from the University of Science and Technology of China, concluded that key patents underpinning advanced rare earth functional materials remained largely controlled by Japan and the United States.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A wheel loader moves ore at a rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California \u2013 one of the few significant rare earth production sites outside China. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7189b9a2-c7f2-42f7-a6e0-ca284ec9a1e5_0c42f09f.jpg\" title=\"A wheel loader moves ore at a rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California \u2013 one of the few significant rare earth production sites outside China. Photo: Reuters\"\/>A wheel loader moves ore at a rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California \u2013 one of the few significant rare earth production sites outside China. Photo: ReutersThese downstream compounds and components made from processed rare earths \u2013 including <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/economic-indicators\/article\/3337346\/chinas-rare-earth-magnet-exports-eu-jump-nearly-60-approvals-take-effect?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">permanent magnets<\/a>, catalysts and luminescent and polishing materials \u2013 accounted for more than 80 per cent of rare earth-related patents worldwide and represented the industry\u2019s most commercially important applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s dominance in rare earth mining, refining and exports has long been viewed as a strategic advantage.But a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,369540,99,512,941,369539,21045,64167,369541,65790,135468,7031,1055,51965],"class_list":["post-780728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bulletin-of-the-chinese-academy-of-sciences","tag-business","tag-china","tag-japan","tag-journal-of-rare-earths","tag-rd","tag-rare-earth","tag-rare-earth-industry","tag-rare-earth-mining","tag-rare-earth-products","tag-semiconductor","tag-united-states","tag-university-of-science-and-technology-of-china"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}