To address the "bottleneck" issue of rare earths, the United States is investing billions of dollars to strengthen its domestic rare earth capabilities, including financing for a new factory for Australian company Lynas in West Texas, but these projects are progressing slowly. Lynas stated in August that there was "significant uncertainty" about whether its Texas plant would proceed on schedule. There is an increasing consensus domestically in the U.S. that building reliable supply chains overseas may achieve faster and greater progress. The U.S. and its partner countries are increasingly looking toward a 15-year-old rare earth processing facility in central Malaysia. This rare earth refinery, operated by Lynas and built with funding from a Japanese state-owned enterprise, is the only major rare earth refining facility outside of China, and soon a South Korean-developed "super magnet" factory will be added nearby. This reflects the kind of alliance investment model that the U.S. hopes to replicate globally to try to weaken China's control over processed rare earths.
However, after more than a decade of Sino-Malaysian cooperation, China has already gained some influence in Malaysia's rare earth industry. Malaysian leaders emphasized that their recent agreement with the U.S. on rare earths does not exclude cooperation with China, including ongoing discussions about building a Chinese refinery in Malaysia. Although Lynas has signed an agreement with the state of Kelantan to explore its rare earth reserves, the Chinese state-owned enterprise Xiamen Tungsten has also signed a similar agreement with Kedah. Malaysia is not taking sides, but instead cooperating with both the U.S. and China.
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Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1849472270228491/
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