The Chinese government has begun an intensive campaign to prevent rare earths from leaving the country without Beijing’s permission, a step that is making shortages even more severe for these minerals, which are crucial to automakers, military contractors and many other businesses.

中国政府正在展开一场全面行动，防止稀土在未经北京许可的情况下出境。这一举措导致这些对汽车制造商、军工企业和许多其他行业至关重要的矿产资源的短缺问题愈发严峻。

The anti-smuggling campaign, which Chinese state media described this week, is a cornerstone of Beijing’s move this spring to assert tighter control over the rare earth industry as a tool in Chinese statecraft.

中国官方媒体本周报道将该行动描述为反走私，它是北京今年春季加强对稀土行业控制的核心举措，旨在将稀土作为国家战略工具。

Beijing halted legal exports on April 4 of seven kinds of rare earths and magnets made from them. Beijing said any further shipments of these rare earths and magnets, which are processed almost entirely in China, would require export licenses.

北京于4月4日停止了七种稀土及相关稀土磁体的合法出口，并表示今后这些几乎完全在中国加工的稀土和磁体均需获得许可证方能出口。

Few licenses have been issued, as Beijing exerts pressure on the United States and others to lower tariffs on Chinese goods and to allow the sale of sensitive military technology to China.

目前获批的许可证寥寥无几，与此同时，北京正施压美国及其他国家降低对华商品关税并允许向中国出售敏感军事技术。

Many companies in the United States, Europe and elsewhere have long depended on China for rare earth metals and now find themselves fast running out of supplies.

长期以来，美国、欧洲及其他地区的许多企业依赖中国供应稀土金属，如今发现库存正迅速耗尽。

China’s anti-smuggling push amounts to a double whammy for these businesses: Beijing has halted legal exports and is cracking down very hard on illegal exports at the same time.

中国的反走私行动对这些企业而言堪称双重打击：北京不仅停止了合法出口，同时也在严厉打击非法出口。

Widespread smuggling eroded the effectiveness of China’s previous restrictions of rare earth exports. Beijing imposed a two-month embargo on Japan during a territorial dispute in 2010 and intermittent restrictions from 2009 to 2013 to put pressure on global manufacturers to move factories into China.

大规模的走私此前曾削弱中国稀土出口限制的效果。2010年领土争端期间，北京对日本实施了两个月的禁运，并在2009至2013年间间歇性施加限制，以迫使全球制造商将工厂迁至中国。

Until 2010, when Beijing began early attempts to limit smuggling, Chinese organized crime syndicates smuggled up to half of China’s annual rare earth production out of the country. Beijing’s efforts had limited success at first. Multinational companies like Boeing, Volkswagen and Toyota relied on long supply chains in which legal and illegal production were mixed together.

直到2010年北京首次尝试限制走私前，中国有组织犯罪集团每年走私的稀土量高达中国年产量的一半。起初，北京的努力成效有限，在波音、大众和丰田等跨国公司依赖的长供应链中，合法与非法生产的稀土混杂。

Even before the recent crackdown, however, the scale of illegal shipments had been greatly reduced. “Smuggling is not as easy as it once was,” said David Abraham, a rare earths specialist at Boise State University.

然而，在近期打击行动之前，非法运输的规模就已经有大幅缩减。“走私已不像过去那么容易了，”博伊西州立大学稀土专家戴维·亚伯拉罕表示。

Senior officials from China’s customs, commercial, police and spy agencies met on May 9 to plot strategy for the crackdown. Officials from 11 national ministries and seven provinces met three days later and issued a joint statement through the Ministry of Commerce.

5月9日，中国海关、商务、警察和情报机构的高级官员开会商讨打击策略。三天后，11个国家部委和七个省份的官员召开会议，并通过商务部发布联合声明。

“Strategic mineral export control is related to national security and development interests, and strengthening the control of the entire export chain is the key,” the statement said. It also called for comprehensive tracking of rare earths at every stage of production and transportation.

声明称：“战略性矿产出口管制关乎国家安全和发展利益，加强全出口链条管控是关键。”声明还呼吁对稀土生产和运输的每个环节进行全面追踪。

3月，来自中国广西的卡车通过一处口岸进入越南。

China’s Ministry of Commerce has said its new licensing system was aimed at limiting military use of rare earth metals. American military contractors rely heavily on rare earth magnets and other critical minerals from China to build missiles, drones, tanks, artillery and fighter jets.

中国商务部表示，新的许可制度旨在限制稀土金属的军事用途。美国军工企业高度依赖从中国进口的稀土磁体和其他关键矿产，用于制造导弹、无人机、坦克、火炮和战斗机。

China’s Ministry of Commerce now requires Chinese producers to submit elaborate documentation for each request to export restricted rare earths or magnets. To prevent resales, the application requires Chinese companies to certify not just who is buying the material but how it will be used in subsequent steps of production, sometimes including photos of products, three rare earth industry leaders outside China said.

中国商务部现要求国内生产商在申请出口受限稀土或磁体时提交详尽文件。三家中国以外的稀土行业领先企业透露，为防止转售，申请不仅要求中国企业证明材料购买方身份，还需说明其在后续生产环节中的用途，有时甚至需要提供产品照片。

These documents may provide Beijing with a detailed map of how rare earths are used abroad, and could make it easier for China to target specific companies and countries in the future.

这些文件可能为北京提供稀土海外用途的详情，使其未来更易针对特定企业和国家采取行动。

“It’s essentially becoming an intelligence gathering effort,” said James Litinsky, chairman and chief executive of MP Materials, an American company that owns the sole U.S. rare earths mine, located in Mountain Pass, Calif.

“这本质上正在成为一项情报收集工作，”美国MP材料公司董事长兼首席执行官詹姆斯·利廷斯基表示。该公司拥有美国唯一的稀土矿，位于加利福尼亚州山口市。

Securities Times, a Chinese state-owned news outlet controlled by People’s Daily, the flagship publication of the Communist Party, said in a report this week that Guangxi, a region in southern China that borders Vietnam, was tightening its scrutiny of rare earths trafficking in particular.

由中共机关报《人民日报》主管的中国国有新闻机构《证券时报》本周在一篇报道中称，与越南接壤的中国南部地区广西正特别加强对稀土走私的审查。

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, smugglers routinely moved large quantities of rare earths across the border with Vietnam. A tiny refinery in northern Vietnam was the only facility outside China that could undertake the complicated steps needed to chemically process so-called heavy rare earths.

在新冠疫情前，走私者经常跨境向越南运输大量稀土。越南北部一家小型精炼厂是中国以外唯一能承担复杂的重稀土化学处理的设施。

But China built an elaborate system of fences with motion detectors along its southern border during the pandemic, after a series of incidents in which infected people entered China. The fences have since proved an obstacle for smugglers.

但在疫情期间，中国因一系列境外人员输入感染事件，在南部边境修建了带有运动探测器的精密护栏系统。事实证明这已成为走私者的障碍。

The small refinery in Vietnam closed more than a year ago because of a dispute with the country’s tax authorities.

这家位于越南的小型精炼厂因与该国税务部门的纠纷，已于一年多前关闭。

Another smuggling method, employed during China’s embargo against Japan in 2010, was to melt rare earths into steel beams. The beams were then exported and remelted at their destination to extract the rare earths.

2010年中国对日本实施禁运期间，另一种走私手段是将稀土熔入钢梁，随后出口并在目的地重新熔化以提取稀土。

But China has tightened its surveillance of the steel sector, and many small mills have closed, replaced by fewer, larger mills with greater state supervision.

但中国已加强对钢铁行业的监控，许多小型钢厂关闭，取而代之的是数量更少、规模更大且受国家监管更严格的钢厂。

As shortages of rare earths outside China worsen and prices surge, the potential profits are huge for smugglers willing to take the risk.

随着中国以外地区稀土短缺加剧、价格飙升，愿冒风险的走私者可能获得巨额利润。