Full Text: Situation and Policies of China's Rare Earth Industry

BEIJING - The Information Office of the State Council, or China's cabinet, on Wednesday published the country's first white paper on the rare earth industry.

Following is the full text:

SITUATION AND POLICIES OF CHINA'S RARE EARTH INDUSTRY

Information Office of the State Council

The People's Republic of China

June 2010, Beijing

First Edition 2012

China Internet Information Center

Contents

Preface

I. Current Situation of China's Rare Earth Industry

II. Principles and Targets of Development

III. Effectively Protecting and Rationally Utilizing Rare Earth Resources

IV. Better Coordination of Rare Earth Utilization with Environmental Protection

V. Promoting Technological Advancement and Industrial Upgrading

VI. Promoting Fair Trade and International Cooperation

Preface

Rare earths are an important, non-renewable natural resource with increasingly wider applications in economic and social development.

China is among the countries with relatively rich rare earth reserves. Since the 1950s, remarkable progress has been witnessed in China's rare earth industry. After many years of effort, China has become the world's largest producer, consumer and exporter of rare earth products.

While bringing benefits to mankind, the exploitation of rare earth has brought about increasingly significant problems regarding this resource and the environment. In the exploitation and utilization of rare earth, the rational utilization and effective protection of the environment pose common challenges for the world at large. In recent years, China has taken comprehensive measures in the links of mining, production and exporting of rare earth goods and strengthened efforts for the protection of the resource and the environment, endeavoring to ensure a sustainable and healthy development of this industry.

With the in-depth development of economic globalization, China is involved in more extensive international exchanges and cooperation in the field of rare earth. Always honoring the rules and living up to its commitments, China has provided the world with large quantities of rare earth products. It will continue to follow the WTO rules, strengthen scientific management of this industry and supply rare earth products to the global market, so as to make its due contribution to the development and prosperity of the world economy.

For some time now, some countries have been particularly fretful about the situation of China's rare earth industry and related policies, doing a lot of guesswork and conjuring up many stories. We hereby give a presentation about China's rare earth industry in order to further provide the international community with a better understanding of this issue.