How much have the Chinese people paid for the CCP's dominance in rare earths?

The rare earth dispute is rooted in imperialism and the pursuit of global hegemony.
Li Yong and Mobi (China Labor Forum) 7 November 2025

Rare earth elements are considered China's most powerful trump card in the Sino-US imperialist trade war. They are key materials for manufacturing advanced medical devices, mobile phones, and artificial intelligence (AI) chips. More importantly, the world's fastest-growing industry—the military industry—requires rare earth metals. A single US-made F-35 fighter jet contains 417 kilograms of rare earth elements. How was China's rare earth trump card forged, and who paid the price for it?

Rare earth elements refer to a collection of 17 elements. In fact, rare earth elements are not rare; the reserves of some elements are even higher than those of common metals such as copper and lead. However, they are generally dispersed, difficult to refine, and their mining is often accompanied by alarming pollution. China currently holds approximately 50% of the world's proven rare earth reserves, 90% of the world's refining capacity, and its total output once accounted for over 90% of the world's total, but last year it accounted for about 64%.

China's rare earth industry rose to prominence in 1985. At that time, under Deng Xiaoping's leadership, the CCP had embarked on a path of capitalist restoration, implementing tax rebates for rare earth exports to encourage foreign exchange earnings. Illegal mining, refining, and even smuggling of rare earth deposits proceeded openly, with virtually no environmental regulations in place. Under these circumstances, the authorities did not consider the environmental damage caused by mining, the disposal of waste and worker safety during refining, or tariffs on exports and smuggling. As a result, the price of finished rare earth products in China was only one-third to one-fifth of that in the United States. It was precisely by shifting costs onto the environment and workers (who even lacked the ability to organize unions and fight for basic democratic rights) that China virtually monopolized the rare earth export market. But what price did the Chinese people and the poor pay for this?

Initially, the most common method for refining rare earth elements in China was to first mine the soil containing rare earth ions, and then repeatedly irrigate and soak it with large amounts of acidic solution to displace the rare earth ions. This resulted in the mountains being devastated by the mining, vegetation being completely eradicated, and the acidic solution seeping into the soil in large quantities, turning the entire area into wasteland with almost no chance of natural recovery. These waste solutions also flowed into groundwater and rivers, harming all fish and plants in the waterways.

Later, the CCP promoted the so-called "in-situ leaching," which involves drilling holes in mountains, injecting acidic solutions to allow rare earth minerals to be replaced underground, and then pumping the solution back out. While this appears to avoid completely altering the mountain's appearance, only a portion of the injected solution is pumped back; the rest seeps into the ground. Therefore, this is merely a self-deceptive method, like "sweeping the garbage under the sofa," and the pollution becomes more insidious and long-lasting. Consequently, some have summarized this with a widely circulated "fact" that "for every ton of rare earth refined, 2,000 tons of waste are generated," although this is not an accurate figure.

In 2012, the *Daily Economic News* reported that in Jiangxi Province, local villagers were experiencing crop failures due to rampant pollution. Although the villagers deeply resented the mining operations that were destroying their villages, they were forced to join the illegal mining operations to survive. They used rudimentary methods in their backyards to extract the minerals for a meager income, but due to the lack of any protective measures, their health was severely damaged. Meanwhile, the local government, bribed by the mine owners, turned a blind eye to this pollution.

According to media reports in 2012, in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province alone, there were as many as 300 abandoned rare earth mines, with 200 million tons of tailings and waste residue, and nearly 100 square kilometers of forest destroyed. In the suburbs of Baotou City, there is a notorious "tailings pond" called Black Lake. It is not a natural lake, but rather formed by wastewater discharged from surrounding mines. The "lake" contains no life, and the surrounding area is barren for miles around. Nearly every household in the vicinity suffers from various rare and difficult-to-treat diseases, including chest and lung diseases and osteoporosis. China's "competitive advantage" and "voice" in the international rare earth market, characterized by low prices, are entirely built on the bloody exploitation of the working class, who are forcibly prohibited from forming labor unions, and on the environment. According to Bloomberg, the waste gases (including deadly fluorine and sulfur dioxide) produced annually by China's rare earth industry are more than five times the total emissions from all mining and refining plants in the United States. A research report in the *Journal of Environmental Health* indicates that rare earth workers have lower white blood cell counts, neutrophil counts, and monocyte counts than normal, and these counts typically reach their lowest point within six years of employment. Furthermore, many workers suffer from pneumoconiosis, chemical poisoning, and leukemia caused by exposure to radioactive materials.

The environmental damage to rare earth producing areas could take up to 300 years to repair, and some damage may even be irreversible. However, in this frenzied slaughter of all life on the land, capitalists have reaped unimaginable profits, while the CCP proudly regards it as a "weapon" against American imperialism. According to Bloomberg, Xi Jinping's family, primarily through his sister Qi Qiaoqiao, holds substantial shares in China's rare earth industry, which is part of the Xi family's vast business empire, valued at approximately $1 billion in 2012.

In the past, Western capitalist countries were happy to outsource these "dirty jobs" to China, enjoying cheap rare earths without worrying about environmental regulations, worker rights, or media oversight. However, with the escalating conflict between Chinese and American imperialism, and given the crucial role of rare earths in modern warfare, the United States and other Western countries have had to accelerate plans to develop rare earth supply chains independent of China. In October, Trump signed new rare earth agreements with Australia, Japan, and Malaysia.

Almost all experts agree that it will take at least five years, and possibly longer, for the United States and its allies to gradually reduce their dependence on Chinese rare earth elements, and this will require massive investment. Like the rapid increase in military budgets, this investment will risk significant cuts to healthcare, education, and other social services, as well as already strained climate monitoring efforts. Labor movements worldwide must heed the call to nationalize the rare earth industry, placing it under democratic control by the working class, and to develop a democratic program to ensure that rare earth elements are used only for peaceful technologies. If these vital minerals fall into the hands of corrupt, belligerent, and militaristic capitalists, they will only bring more suffering and destruction to the working class.
https://chinaworker.info/zh-hans/2025/11/07/48262/

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