Highlights

• China's rare earth industry invests in talent development through comprehensive onboarding that combines technical training with ideological alignment.
• North Rare Earth's recruitment strategy treats new employees as strategic assets, aiming to maintain global mineral dominance.
• The onboarding process focuses on innovation, discipline, and long-term strategic thinking.
• Efforts are made to create a cohesive workforce aligned with national industrial goals.

In a highly choreographed onboarding ceremony (opens in a new tab) on July 18, China’s Northern Rare Earth Group (North Rare Earth), one of the world's largest rare earth producers, welcomed its 2025 cohort of new hires with a top-level address from senior leadership. Liu Peixun, a top executive from parent company Baotou Steel Group and chairman of North Rare Earth, delivered a clear message: innovation, discipline, and long-term strategic thinking are not just expected—they’re being systematically instilled into China’s next generation of rare earth industry leaders.

For the United States and its allies, this isn’t just a company pep talk—it’s a window into how China continues to consolidate its rare earth leadership from the ground up. With the West scrambling to secure alternative supply chains for critical materials like neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium—used in electric vehicles, fighter jets, and wind turbines—China is investing not only in production but also in its workforce.

Strategic Workforce Development with Political Discipline

Liu laid out a five-part blueprint for success: career vision, critical thinking, perseverance, technical immersion, and strict rule-following. Employees are expected to master their trades, respect Party discipline, and fully absorb North Rare Earth’s mission and values.

This isn’t typical HR fare. The week-long onboarding includes lectures from Communist Party instructors, safety and green production briefings, hands-on learning from frontline technicians, and motivational talks from model workers. One key feature? An immersive tour of the Baotou Rare Earth Museum to ground recruits in the historical arc and global significance of China’s rare earth dominance.

Signals to Watch

While Western policymakers focus on tariffs, subsidies, and mine permitting and money making, China is locking in talent, knowledge transfer, and ideological cohesion. The training emphasized “new quality productive forces”—a Chinese term referring to advanced, innovation-driven manufacturing—and team-building activities that cultivate collective loyalty. In fact, by celebrating workers as “builders of the future” and demanding Party-aligned discipline from the start, North Rare Earth is not just preparing engineers—it’s forging cadres of strategic industrial operatives.

Bottom Line

This onboarding spectacle is more than an internal HR event. It reflects Beijing’s integrated approach to industrial policy, where even entry-level recruits are treated as strategic assets in a long game to maintain global control of critical minerals. For Western firms and governments seeking to build resilience in their rare earth supply chains, China’s comprehensive human capital strategy is a valuable lesson—and a warning.