NIKKEI ASIA
KENJI KAWASE, Nikkei Asia chief business news correspondent
March 4, 2021
Decade after drastic cut in exports to Japan, Beijing sees the tables turned
China heavily relies on imports of rare-earth minerals, mainly from the U.S. and Myanmar. (Source photos by Reuters)
HONG KONG -- While China reigns as the largest producer of rare-earth elements, the recent military coup in Myanmar has reminded Beijing of its reliance on and vulnerability to its Southeast Asian neighbor.
China owns the largest reserves of these strategic minerals, which are indispensable in churning out a wide variety of tech products, from smartphones to electric vehicles, wind power generators and missile defense systems, but it also heavily relies on imports, mainly from the U.S. and Myanmar.
The latest annual report by the U.S. Geological Survey states that China produced 140,000 tons of rare-earth oxide equivalent in 2020, almost 60% of the global total. Its reserves were 44 million tons, double those of Vietnam, which are the second-largest in the world.