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China’s Communist Party
ChinaPolitics

China’s top spy agency says foreign agents are targeting rare earths industry

  • Spy agencies and organisations with ‘complicated backgrounds’ have been gathering intelligence and stealing tech, according to state security ministry
  • It says rare earth-related items have been ‘illegally exported and misused … damaging our national interests and posing a threat to national security’

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China is the world’s top producer of rare earths, which are essential for advanced technologies used in sectors ranging from defence to clean energy. Photo: Reuters
Vanessa Caiin Shanghai
China’s top anti-espionage agency has warned about foreign agents gathering information and intelligence on the country’s rare earths reserve, citing national security concerns.
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In the latest article on its WeChat account on Thursday, the Ministry of State Security said overseas spy agencies and organisations with “complicated backgrounds” had frequently collected intelligence, stolen technologies and illegally acquired rare earth-related items in recent years.

It said the actions were damaging to China’s resource security.

China is the top producer of rare earth elements, a group of 17 metals essential to modern technologies in sectors ranging from defence to clean energy. The country is also ahead on technologies for rare earths, which require intense processing to produce usable material.

In December, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce further tightened its 2020 ban on the export of rare earth processing technologies to include the technology for making permanent magnets.
China’s share of total rare earths exports was about 90 per cent a decade ago but had fallen to 70 per cent by 2022, according to the US Geological Survey. Photo: Reuters
China’s share of total rare earths exports was about 90 per cent a decade ago but had fallen to 70 per cent by 2022, according to the US Geological Survey. Photo: Reuters

In the article, the ministry referred to cases where information about rare earths was being collected, which it said were found during Chinese counter-intelligence efforts. It did not name any of the overseas companies or organisations involved.

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