Current issues and policies on energy critical element sectors in China — A global perspective

This paper aims to understand the recent REE policies in China, including a series of regulatory measures on mining and extraction of REEs such as full-range plans for rare earth resources with strategic reserves and commercial stockpiles, regime of resource taxes and export tariffs, enforcement of environmental and occupational health standards, control of new project investments, establishment of production and export quotas, concentration of domestic REE market with producer consolidation, promotion of research and development for downstream technologies, and combat against illegal production and illicit trading and smuggling. For those policies, China has been harassed or beset by serious concerns, debates or disputes from those nations which have been heavily relied on rare earth imports from China. From a global perspective, this paper tries to understand the Chinese REE policies by analyzing some major ECE issues plagued with China for years such as over-depleted resources, low productivity and profitability, environmental and occupational health costs, and lack of downstream technologies.