Predatory Pricing: How the Chinese Communist Party Manipulates Global Minerals Prices To Maintain Its Dominance

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has pursued a decades-long strategy to dominate global critical mineral supply chains and manipulate commodity markets to advance the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) geopolitical and economic objectives. This interim report examines how Beijing uses state subsidies, regulatory controls, and coordinated industrial policy to influence global markets for critical minerals such as rare earth elements and lithium.

The investigation finds that the PRC treats critical minerals not as ordinary commodities, but as strategic assets. Through massive financing for state-backed mining companies, control over midstream refining, and restrictions on independent price reporting, the CCP has gained outsized influence over mineral pricing and supply chains worldwide.

The report concludes that these practices distort global markets, discourage investment in U.S. and allied supply chains, and create strategic vulnerabilities for industries essential to national security and advanced technology. It outlines policy recommendations to strengthen domestic production, improve market transparency, and build resilient supply chains with U.S. allies. 

Key Findings

• The PRC treats critical minerals as strategic assets, not market commodities. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has pursued a decades-long strategy to dominate global supply chains for critical minerals essential to advanced technology, clean energy, and national defense.
• State subsidies and financing support global mining acquisitions. The PRC government has provided tens of billions of dollars in subsidized financing—including zero-interest loans—to Chinese mining companies to acquire strategic mineral assets worldwide.
• Beijing has created a legal framework that enables price manipulation. Chinese law governing commodity pricing and price reporting allows the government to pressure producers and market participants to keep prices within ranges favorable to CCP policy objectives.
• Chinese-controlled exchanges and price reporting agencies influence global pricing. Through growing influence over commodity exchanges and pricing institutions, the PRC can propagate pricing signals that reflect government policy rather than market fundamentals.
• The PRC maintains a chokehold on midstream mineral refining. Chinese firms control large shares of global processing capacity for key critical minerals, allowing Beijing to influence supply and pricing even when raw materials are mined outside China.
• China executed a decades-long strategy to dominate rare earth supply chains. By subsidizing production, undercutting competitors, and consolidating state-backed producers, the PRC achieved near-monopoly control over rare earth processing and leveraged this power geopolitically.
• Chinese firms have aggressively expanded control over lithium supply chains. PRC companies—backed by government policy—have acquired major lithium mining assets and taken steps to influence global lithium prices to deter competing supply chains.
• These practices distort global markets and threaten supply chain security. The PRC’s coordinated industrial policies discourage investment in U.S. and allied mineral projects and create strategic vulnerabilities for industries vital to economic and national security.

Read the full report here.