China should ramp up strategic mineral mining exploration to secure its supply chain in “extreme situations”, said natural resources minister Wang Guanghua, as Beijing increases its push for national security and self-reliance.
“At the moment, the country has not invested enough in the exploration of strategic minerals, while there is a slow down in the amount of new available resources,” Wang Guanghua wrote in the Economic Daily on Wednesday. The ongoing “redistribution” and “fierce competition for dominance” in the global supply chain has made mineral exploration a key to security, he added.