Within the Chinese capital of rare earths

Chinese state media have the & # 39; capital of rare earth & # 39; of the country because Beijing threatens to stop exporting natural resources to the United States in the midst of a trade war between the two countries.

Photos of Bayan Obo, one of the world's largest deposits of rare earth metals, were shared yesterday by multiple public stores, including the Global Times.

The newspaper gushed & # 39; hard power & # 39; to display photos of the mine in Baotou in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Baotou, a northern industrial city 90 minutes from Beijing by air, is known as the & # 39; capital of rare earth & # 39; in China.

Rare earths are a group of 17 chemical elements used in hospital scanners, nuclear power plants, LED lights, etc.

Between 2014 and 2017, China represented 80 percent of the imports of rare earth metals to the United States.

With a population of 2.7 million, Baotou has been an important manufacturing center in the country since the 1950s, when China & # 39; s Community Party tried to develop its rare earth industry.

It is responsible for more than half of the rare earth metals mining and production output in China and has deposits of at least 100 million tonnes, according to Baotou Daily.

It is also known for its steel industry.

It all started with one factory group.

Bao Steel was founded in 1953 to produce ferro-silicon, an alloy of iron, silicon and rare earth metals. When it was first established, it was kept as a national secret and soldiers would guard factory gates to prevent civilians from entering.

China has achieved its breakthrough in rare earth mining in 1984 thanks to a team of researchers from the Baotou Research Institute of Rare Earths, who have successfully extracted seven rare earth elements from the soil in the Bayan Obo region.

Those elements include Lanthanum, essential for making batteries; Europium, which is used in mercury lamps; and Gadolinium, commonly used in X-ray scanners, according to China Rare Earth Net.

Part of the Bao Steal later became Northern Rare Earths, the largest suppliers of rare earth in China.

In addition to Baotou, the city of Ganzhou in Guizhou Province in southern China is known for its deposits of rare earth minerals.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the JL MAG Rare-Earth Co. last week. Ltd. in Ganzhou, as the media reported. This led to speculation about the Beijing plan to use the chemical elements in the American trade war.

China hinted yesterday that the trade war with the US could lead to real war with a coded warning because it threatened to stop the export of essential & # 39; rare earth & # 39; minerals – a group of 17 chemical elements that become used in hospital scanners, nuclear power plants and LED lighting.

A commentary in People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, said: "Don't say we didn't warn you!" – what a diplomatic term usually reserved by Beijing as a sign of the start of armed warfare.

The day before, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of Global Times, said that Beijing is seriously considering & # 39; to rare earths like & # 39; trump & # 39; against Trump.

& # 39; It will certainly make the US feel pain in a real sense & # 39 ;, said Hu via his account on Twitter Weibo.

The Pentagon responded yesterday and said the US Department of Defense had submitted a report to Congress on rare earth minerals, because Washington is striving to reduce US dependence on China.

Although the Pentagon did not provide details of the report, it said it was linked to a federal program that was intended to strengthen domestic production capabilities through customized & # 39; customized & # 39; provide economic incentives.

China is & # 39; the world's largest exporter of rare earths and produces more than 95 percent of the chemical elements used worldwide, or 120,000 tons per year.