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<\/a><\/p>\nJulie Klinger,<\/a>\u00a0Assistant Professor of International Relations at the\u00a0<\/span>Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent article on the need for global cooperation on rare earth elements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Klinger’s article, entitled “Global Cooperation Needed on Rare Earth Elements,<\/a>” was published in\u00a0East Asia Forum<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on September 26, 2019.<\/p>\n From the text of the article:<\/p>\n Today, as in\u00a0<\/span>2010<\/a>, the international discussion surrounding China\u2019s dominance of the rare earth sector is partial and problematic. It is neither in China\u2019s nor the international community\u2019s interest for China to be responsible for supplying the majority of global demand for rare earth elements. In fact, in 2016, China released a\u00a0<\/span>Rare Earth Development Plan<\/a>\u00a0to protect domestic rare earth reserves while growing the domestic rare earth industry.<\/span><\/p>\n The point of this plan \u2014 and previous policy measures \u2014 is to change China\u2019s position in the global division of toxic labour. For decades, China\u2019s hinterlands and labourers\u00a0bore the brunt\u00a0<\/a>of mining most rare earths for global consumption. After watching their crops fail, their livestock die, and their relatives succumb to cancer and bone diseases, people demanded better. Government responses have included consolidating the mining industry while incentivising research and development (R&D) in high-tech applications for rare earths.<\/p>\n In these times, China doesn\u2019t want to mine rare earths for the rest of the world. And if recent news coverage is any indication, the rest of the world does not want to rely on China for the global rare earth supply.<\/p>\n Diversifying global rare earth supply chains is therefore a point of common interest between China and other major economies. But policymakers and investors in other rare earth-rich countries are instead fixated on\u00a0geopolitically-charged rhetoric\u00a0<\/a>rather than the realities of the sector.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n