Beyond the recognition of the threat of Chinese market power, in the critical mineral sector this webinar explores how and why China successfully achieved its status as an indispensable global rare earth producer. Drawing on the economic linkage framework inspired by Hirschman, it demonstrates how China’s state-led industrial policy consolidated fragmented production into vertically integrated supply chains, linking upstream extraction, midstream refining, and downstream applications in permanent magnets and clean energy technologies. The study identifies three phases of policy evolution—export orientation and intermediate technology development, forward linkage building and material manufacturing, and consolidation aligned with economic statecraft since 2018—each reflecting adaptive recalibration to shifting global and domestic pressures. By deploying “industrial ethnography” and process-tracing policy interventions, the study shows how China’s model of resource governance challenges conventional development theories, providing an alternative pathway of resource-led industrialization with lessons for other mineral producers navigating the twin imperatives of green transition and strategic competition.

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