{"id":46361,"date":"2025-08-05T05:53:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46361\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T05:53:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:53:15","slug":"in-us-china-battle-over-rare-earths-developing-nations-are-the-front-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46361\/","title":{"rendered":"In US-China battle over rare earths, developing nations are the front line"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Rare earths are needed for everything from consumer electronics to electric vehicles, wind turbines and fighter jets \u2013 and China controls the supply chain. In a four-part series, we look at the race for rare earths, starting with the contest for reserves in developing countries.<\/p>\n<p>Former Chinese leader <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/deng-xiaoping?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Deng Xiaoping<\/a> once said that \u201cthe Middle East has oil, China has rare earths\u201d. His words carry new weight today as China\u2019s stranglehold over the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/rare-earths?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">rare earths<\/a> supply chain gives it leverage in the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/us-china-trade-war?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">trade war<\/a> with the United States.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China controls some 60 per cent of global mining of rare earths, over 85 per cent of their processing, and more than 90 per cent of permanent magnet production \u2013 used in everything from cars to medical devices and wind turbines.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">That leaves the US and other Western nations vulnerable, and many are now scrambling to diversify their supply chains away from China.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Analysts say that while there are multilateral efforts under way to reduce reliance on China they are largely diplomatic, and there is a lack of investment or technical expertise to move away from Chinese supply.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">They also say that developing countries with rare earths are emerging as the new front line of a high-stakes contest between China and the West.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"China has a stranglehold over the rare earths supply chain. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/693d99f4-0e66-4f1e-abb6-c25236551c48_f4329a9d.jpg\" title=\"China has a stranglehold over the rare earths supply chain. Photo: Reuters\"\/>China has a stranglehold over the rare earths supply chain. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rare earths are needed for everything from consumer electronics to electric vehicles, wind turbines and fighter jets \u2013&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2840,8580,45,49,48,95,32381,32386,32384,7872,32389,2454,32385,3845,32388,12609,32383,32387,18262,544,14094,32382,5801,3642],"class_list":["post-46361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-australia","tag-beijing","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-csis","tag-deng-xiaoping","tag-g7","tag-group-of-seven","tag-ilaria-mazzocco","tag-japan","tag-lynas-rare-earths","tag-malaysia","tag-minerals-security-partnership","tag-myanmar","tag-quad","tag-reuters","tag-south-korea","tag-texas","tag-the-united-states","tag-us-department-of-defence","tag-vietnam","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46361","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=46361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}