Because there were few rare earth minerals discovered in the 18th century and limited by technical conditions, only a small amount of water-insoluble oxides could be produced by chemical methods. Historically, this oxide was customarily called "earth", hence the name rare earth.

Rare earth is the general name for a total of 17 metal elements including the lanthanide series elements, scandium and yttrium in the periodic table of elements . There are 250 kinds of rare earth minerals in nature. The first person to discover rare earths was the Finnish scientist Gadolin. In 1974, he isolated the first rare earth "element" from a heavy ore that resembled bitumen.

Because there were few rare earth minerals discovered in the 18th century and limited by technical conditions, only a small amount of water-insoluble oxide could be produced by chemical methods. Historically, this oxide was customarily called "earth", hence the name rare earth.

More than 250 kinds of rare earth minerals have been discovered so far, but only more than 50 of them have industrial value, and only 10 kinds have mining value with existing technology. And because rare earths usually contain radioactive substances , mining is difficult and costly, making them very scarce.

However, its scarcity corresponds to its huge value. Rare earths are widely used in modern industry, from aircraft carriers to smartphones. For example, 4 tons of rare earths are required to manufacture each nuclear submarine, and 417 kilograms of rare earths are used for each US military F-35 fighter jet.

Precisely because rare earths play a very important and irreplaceable role in the manufacturing industry, they are also called industrial MSG and industrial gold. In fact, based on actual availability and mining rate, rare earths are rarer than gold.

China is one of the countries with the largest rare earth reserves in the world. In 1927, the Northwest China Scientific Expedition discovered the Bayan Obo Zhongfeng Iron Mine for the first time. According to a geological survey in 1949, China's rare earth resources accounted for 90% of the world's total proven reserves.

In 1963, the China Rare Earth Industry Conference was held. Considering China's lack of rare earth development technology, the meeting decided to "focus on iron and develop comprehensively" and seal the rare earth resources in minerals into tailings and wait until the technology matures before starting development.

Since China's industrial development was very backward at that time, there was no rare earth production technology, but there was a demand for the use of rare earths. Therefore, the rare earths could only be sold to the United States at a low price, and then the rare earths extracted by the United States were bought back at a high price. At that time, almost all countries that mastered rare earth extraction technology implemented a technical blockade against China.

So much so that China's use of its own rare earths was in an embarrassing situation, "keeping Jinshan begging for food". At that time, there were two rare earth extraction methods used in the world: " ion exchange method and fractional crystallization method" . As long as our country masters any of them, it can get rid of the passive situation of being controlled by others in rare earth extraction.

This situation lasted until 1974. Xu Guangxian, a Chinese physicist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, invented the rare earth "cascade extraction technology". The separation coefficient broke the world record. This invention not only broke through the technological blockade in one fell swoop, but also occupied a leading position in the industry and developed the world's top rare earth extraction technology.

Since then, Academician Xu Guangxian continued to improve the " cascade extraction method" , and finally created a set of cost-effective rare earth extraction methods. Compared with the other two extraction methods, the production cost of the " cascade extraction method" has been reduced by 3/4.

This major invention of Academician Xu Guangxian once again proved with facts, "Science and technology are the primary productive forces" the truth. Since then, China has relied on this invention to transform from a major exporter of rare earths into a major country in the application of rare earths. It has enhanced the competitiveness of our country's rare earth industry in the international market and regained the rare earth market that was once firmly controlled by international giants such as Morley Corporation.

However, since entering the reform and opening up period, as the global industrial process accelerates, the demand for rare earths in countries around the world has also continued to grow.Since China did not pay attention to the protection of intellectual property rights in the early days of reform and opening up, Academician Xu Guangxian's painstaking scientific research invention - the rare earth "cascade extraction method" was spread wantonly.

Under the impact of the market economy tide, the threshold of China's rare earth industry was lowered extremely low, but the returns were so generous that anyone who had money to invest in rare earths at that time could make a fortune.

Under this situation, a large number of small and medium-sized rare earth mining companies have appeared on the market. They are like ants gnawing at China's rare earth industry, selling a large amount of precious rare earth resources at low prices in exchange for the cash they need. In the end, China Customs discovered that illegal smuggling activities in the rare earth industry had led to huge loopholes in my country’s rare earth exports.

Developed countries that are the demand side of rare earths have obviously realized the importance of rare earths. Since they can easily obtain cheap rare earths from China, they have generally started a large-scale import mode of purchasing Chinese rare earths. In addition to using some of them for industrial production, they also use excess rare earths as their own strategic reserves and strictly control exports.

According to a review of foreign trade companies engaged in rare earth exports at that time, the export targets were all large foreign companies. One foreign company purchased rare earths from hundreds of Chinese companies at the same time. Since 1990, the United States, the European Union, Japan, South Korea and other countries have snapped up large quantities of China's cheap rare earths and stored them in their own warehouses.

Not only that, these countries have also purposefully established a rare earth alliance to target China's rare earth resources. When China's rare earth prices rise, they join forces to stop purchasing, forcing China's small and medium-sized enterprises to compete viciously with each other and engage in price wars.

After prices fell back, they began to make crazy purchases. In this way, they controlled the pricing power of rare earths, which eventually led to China's precious rare earth resources being reduced to "cabbage prices" in the international market.

Coupled with the leakage of the " cascade extraction technology" developed by Academician Xu Guangxian, it is even worse and has almost caused a devastating blow to China's rare earth industry.

From 1990 to 2005, these 15 years were a period when China's rare earth resources were sold at low prices. During this period, due to the lack of control over rare earth exports, China's rare earth exports increased tenfold. The United States, Japan, Europe and other countries have induced some domestic rare earth companies and criminals to engage in rare earth smuggling activities and make huge profits, resulting in the outflow of a large amount of China's rare earth resources.

In 2006, China Customs compiled the import volume of rare earths from various countries and found that this data was 36% higher than the export volume calculated by China Customs. It can be seen that at that time, 1/3 of China's rare earths were smuggled abroad through illegal digging and smuggling.

Rampant excavation and smuggling activities have not only caused serious losses to China's rare earth resources, but also caused huge damage to the ecological environment. Before 1990, China's rare earth reserves accounted for 90% of the world's total. However, by 2006, China's rare earth share dropped to 37%, which is indeed distressing.

Foreign companies that are proficient in calculations saw the opportunity in China's rare earth market and even closed down their own rare earth mines and stored them as strategic reserves. This is the case in the United States. In 2002, the United States closed its domestic Mountain Pass rare earth mine, and at the same time, the rare earth giant Morley Company moved its company to China.

At the same time, rare earth companies in other countries, such as Japan's Epson, the Netherlands' Philips and other major rare earth companies, have also gone to China to open up the market, taking advantage of China's cheap rare earth resources and labor to significantly reduce production costs.

Statistics show that from 1990 to 2005, China's rare earth export volume increased 10 times, but the price dropped by 1/3, and this does not include factors such as smuggling and inflation .

In 2005, Academician Xu Guangxian wrote a letter to the country, lamenting the harm caused by the loss of rare earths to the country. At this point, China began to pay serious attention to the rare earth industry and gradually considered seeking countermeasures to solve the rare earth crisis it was in at that time.The country has begun to tighten the export of rare earths, and foreign companies have gradually increased production costs due to insufficient raw materials.

In response, the United States and the European Union filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization , requesting to put pressure on China, but our country ignored it at the time.

China’s rare earth comeback occurred in 2010. This rare earth war between China and the outside world completely changed China’s passive situation in the field of rare earths.

On September 7, 2010, a Chinese fishing boat was harassed by a Japanese Coast Guard ship while fishing in the waters off the Diaoyu Islands. Captain Zhan Qixiong and 14 fishermen fought hard to resist. The ships on both sides violently collided. Finally, the Chinese fishing boat was seized by Japan, and Zhan Qixiong was taken to Japan for approval.

After the incident, our government immediately lodged a solemn protest with the Japanese government and demanded that Japan release him immediately. It also directly lowered the rare earth export quota for that month by 72%. At the same time, it strengthened supervision and severely cracked down on illegal digging and smuggling of rare earths.

Domestic rare earth companies have also expressed indignation at Japan's unreasonable behavior and voluntarily implemented actions to cut off supplies to Japan. This incident was like a fuse that set off the rare earth war, causing global rare earth prices to skyrocket in an instant. Among them, the price of praseodymium and neodymium rare earths rose from a cabbage price to 1.7 million/ton.

As we all know, electronic products and automobile manufacturing are Japan's pillar industries. The production processes of products in these two major industries require a large amount of rare earth metals , and 95% of these rare earth raw materials come from China. After losing supplies from China, Japan's two pillar industries were suspended that month, the Japanese economy was hit hard as a result, and if this continues, the entire Japanese economy will face collapse.

In this rare earth crisis, the United States and the European Union are naturally not immune. After all, the international rare earth market has instantly reduced supply by 72%, which is unacceptable to any rare earth demand country.

Faced with the Chinese government’s harsh attitude and decisive rare earth sanctions, Japan immediately gave in and announced the acquittal of Chinese captain Zhan Qixiong. The Chinese government sent a special plane to take the heroic captain back to China. This incident caused violent fluctuations in global rare earth prices and drew the United States' attention to the influence of China's rare earths.

In response, the U.S. government launched an investigation into the global rare earth industry chain . The investigation results showed that China produces 95% of the world's rare earth raw materials, 97% of rare earth oxides, 90% of rare earth metal alloys, 75% of neodymium iron boron magnets, and 60% of samarium cobalt magnets. Moreover, the entire industrial chain from rare earth mining and separation to refining and alloy refining is concentrated in China.

Since then, China's rare earth industry has changed from its previous passive situation, greatly improved its position in the international market, and gained the rare earth pricing power in the international market. In addition, China has gained competitive advantages in two other areas of rare earths.

First, the foreign giants who entered the Chinese rare earth market in an attempt to make money failed to achieve their goals, and instead ended up being acquired by Chinese companies. After entering China, these foreign companies felt "acclimatized" and found it difficult to cope with the fierce competition in China's rare earth market. In order to survive, they had to inject Chinese capital.

This is the case for the American company Magnequench, which is a manufacturer of missile magnets in the United States. After its business failed, it was acquired by Chinese companies Zhongke Sanhuan and China Nonferrous Metals, which are affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the State Council respectively.

Second, China has fully mastered the core technology of rare earth extraction and production and has world-class rare earth talents. China now has more than 100 Ph.D.s in the field of rare earths, all of whom were cultivated by their mentor Xu Guangxian. In huge contrast, rare earths are an unpopular major abroad. Apart from China, there are no rare earth Ph.D.s at all in other countries.

Since 2012, Western countries, led by the United States, have repeatedly filed lawsuits against the WTO, demanding that my country cancel the long-standing rare earth quota system. After more than two years of litigation, the WTO issued a report, arguing that China should cancel the quota system.

In response, the Chinese government simply accepted the WTO's suggestion and canceled the quota system. However, the countermeasures were also quite effective. The following month, China announced that it would increase rare earth export tariffs by 10 times and adopt an export license system to replace the quota system.

After the state's rectification of the rare earth industry in recent years, small businesses without qualifications in the rare earth industry have been eliminated, medium-sized enterprises have been merged and reorganized by large state-owned enterprises, and smuggling of rare earths no longer exists in the country.

To sum up, after more than 20 years of development, China’s rare earth industry has finally made a beautiful turnaround with innovative breakthroughs in core technologies and the strong support of national policies. It has completely gotten rid of the suppression and control of developed countries, firmly holds the global rare earth industry chain in its own hands, and achieved a comeback against the wind!