Paper short abstract:

I examine China’s control over the rare earths industry—considered one of the ‘critical minerals’ for energy transition and deployed widely across different sectors of the world economy—as a litmus test against theories of globalization and economic development.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the growing significance of rare earths elements (REEs) as a focal point of geopolitical conflicts and as a tool for economic development. I use the example of REEs to illustrate the apparent limitation of economic globalization theories based on notion of interdependence, cooperation, and possibilities of economic development through global market integration. Drawing from the semi-conductor and batteries for renewable technology as cases, the paper shows that the global value chains of renewables are likely to be dominated by China in the next two decades.

I examine China’s control over the rare earths industry—considered one of the ‘critical minerals’ for energy transition and deployed widely across different sectors of the world economy—as a litmus test against theories of globalization and economic development. Firstly, I highlight the nature of China’s state-backed capital as an important feature of how the global political economy is being restructured. China’s fusion of economic and state power is changing the calculus of market actors and Western governments. Secondly, since 2013, Chinese state capitalism as a governance model—some of its features appear transferrable to the global South—is increasingly gaining traction particularly in Africa and Latin America. China’s industrial strategy reflects growing presence of the state and a partial retreat of the market. In the REE sector, China has demonstrated its capacity to domesticate manufacturing and to link mining production and processing to high-value, technology-intensive downstream segments. China provides a credible alternative based on a logic of developmentalism.