{"id":72636,"date":"2025-06-26T11:40:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T02:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/jun\/26\/china-rare-earths-baotou-life-metallic-elements"},"modified":"2025-06-26T11:40:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T02:40:44","slug":"the-world-wants-chinas-rare-earth-elements-what-is-life-like-in-the-city-that-produces-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=72636","title":{"rendered":"The world wants China\u2019s rare earth elements \u2013 what is life like in the city that produces them?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 80% of China\u2019s rare earth reserves are located in Baotou, an industrial hub of 2.7 million people that abuts the Gobi desert<\/p>\n<p>Central Baotou, an industrial hub of 2.7 million people that abuts the Gobi desert in north China, feels just like any other second-tier Chinese city. Large shopping malls featuring western chains including Starbucks and KFC stand alongside street after street of busy local restaurants, where people sit outside and children play late into the evening, enjoying the relative relief of the cooler temperatures that arrive after dark in Inner Mongolia\u2019s baking summer.<\/p>\n<p>But a short drive into the city\u2019s suburbs reveal another typical, less hospitable, Chinese scene. Factories crowd the city\u2019s edges, with chimneys belching white plumes of smoke. As well as steel and silicon plants, Baotou is home to China\u2019s monopoly on rare earths, the metallic elements that are used in oil refining equipment and car batteries and that have become a major sticking point in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2025\/jun\/11\/trump-says-china-will-face-55-percent-tariffs-us-trade-deal-rare-earth-minerals\">US-China trade war<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/jun\/26\/china-rare-earths-baotou-life-metallic-elements\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 80% of China\u2019s rare earth reserves are located in Baotou, an industrial hub of 2.7 million people that abuts the Gobi desertCentral Baotou, an industrial hub of 2.7 million people that abuts the Gobi desert in north China, feels just like any&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4824,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,6,50,65,730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-business","category-china","category-environment","category-mining"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4824"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72637,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72636\/revisions\/72637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}