{"id":352056,"date":"2025-12-17T23:05:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T23:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/352056\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T23:05:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T23:05:15","slug":"china-bets-big-on-copper-but-weaponisation-risks-low-unlike-with-rare-earths-analysts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/352056\/","title":{"rendered":"China bets big on copper, but \u2018weaponisation\u2019 risks low, unlike with rare earths: analysts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China is accelerating efforts to secure its copper supply chain, designating the metal as critical across strategic industries such as electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and defence amid rising geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Provincial governments are leading the charge. On Monday, Jiangxi \u2013 already a hub for heavy rare earth mines \u2013 pledged in its 15th five-year plan to develop a world-leading hub for advanced copper-based new materials.<\/p>\n<p>That follows a similar move in Shandong, where provincial authorities <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3336261\/chinas-copper-heartland-vows-build-us28-billion-empire-dominate-global-market?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">vowed on December 9<\/a> to build a 200 billion yuan (US$28.4 billion) copper industry by 2027, aiming to become a \u201cglobally competitive copper-smelting base\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The push underscores copper\u2019s evolution into a \u201cstrategic metal\u201d, driven by electrification demands and global supply shortages, said Allan von Mehren, chief China economist at Danske Bank.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">However, analysts say copper is unlikely to become a geopolitical lever for Beijing akin to rare earths, given China\u2019s reliance on imported raw materials.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cChina\u2019s push to develop its copper industry is primarily driven by economic security and supply-chain-resilience considerations, rather than by a narrow export-led strategy,\u201d said Alberto Vettoretti, managing partner at consultancy Dezan Shira &amp; Associates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China is accelerating efforts to secure its copper supply chain, designating the metal as critical across strategic industries&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[152783,152786,276,8580,45,49,48,801,95,27796,152785,152789,46,8986,152788,17496,152784,149530,17116,152787,8404,149527],"class_list":["post-352056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberto-vettoretti","tag-allan-von-mehren","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-beijing","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chile","tag-china","tag-copper","tag-danske-bank","tag-dezan-shira-associates","tag-economy","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-genevieve-donnellon-may","tag-goldman-sachs","tag-jiangxi","tag-london-metal-exchange","tag-ministry-of-industry-and-information-technology","tag-oxford-global-society","tag-rare-earths","tag-shandong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}