“There are 17 rare earth metals in the periodic table – 15 Lanthanides, and Yttrium and Scandium. Although they are called ‘rare earth metals’, they are not actually that rare. In fact, they are quite widespread in the Earth’s crust.   

He added that the several checks and balances as well as environmental safeguards need to be ensured before these rare earth metals are extracted – which in itself is an expensive process.  

Rare earth metals have unique electro-magnetic and luminescent properties and thus find usage in many consumer electronics, computers and networks, as well as clean energy technologies.  

Between the '60s and the ‘80s, the US was the dominant player in the rare earth industry.   

It was in 1986 that Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping realised that China has the largest reserves of rare earth metals in the world. In fact, 30 percent of global reserves came from China at the time.

It is pertinent to note here that China at the time gave very low wages to its workers, the working conditions in the mines were dreadful, and China gave little importance to environmental safeguards.

This led to most of the countries in the world opting to not extract rare earth metals themselves, and instead choose to import them from China, which was offering the most competitive prices.

In the early 2000s, China joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which instilled confidence in many of its trading partners that China will now have to play by the rulebook of the global free trade.

During this time, many countries including the US and India had shuttered their mines and facilities and had started depending on China for import of rare earth metals.

After China became a dominant player in the industry – supplying 90 percent of the global supply of rare earth metals – it increased export taxes and reduced the supply of exports.

Meanwhile, as export taxes went up and supplies came down, the price of rare earth metals went up tenfold. In the decade that followed, many countries were coaxed into moving their factories to China.   

He shared an example to buttress this argument:  

China dressed up its retaliation against Japan saying it would no longer supply rare earth metals to Tokyo because of a strike in one of their ports.

As expected, Japan – one of the largest producers of consumer electronics to the world – was hit hard by this move.

Japan had to ultimately release the captain of the Chinese troller, which had collided with the Japanese vessels, Bahl said. But China did not stop at this.

China extended this embargo on to the European Union (EU) and the US. The move was to illustrate to the world that China now held monopoly over rare earth metals.

Even as China continued to increase export taxes on rare earth metals and slash their supplies, several nations – including India – realised that it was time to start their own production.   

Meanwhile, several nations complained against China’s violations of free trade practices to the WTO, which, in turn, castigated Beijing for indulging in unfair trade.