Highlights
- CNRE conducts major political education campaign targeting 160 union leaders to reinforce national rare earth production goals.
- The initiative focuses on ‘Three Spirits’ doctrine promoted by Xi Jinping: model worker spirit, labor spirit, and craftsmanship spirit.
- China’s rare earth strategy demonstrates a sophisticated approach of ideological cohesion and labor discipline to achieve geopolitical technological dominance.
In a fresh display of state-aligned industrial mobilization, China Northern Rare Earth Group (opens in a new tab) (CNRE) has launched a major political education and labor union training campaign aimed at reinforcing its dual role as the “core force” behind two key rare earth production bases. Over 160 union leaders and employee representatives participated in the event, which centered on ideological alignment, workforce unity, and the “Three Spirits” doctrine—model worker spirit, labor spirit, and craftsmanship spirit—promoted by General Secretary Xi Jinping.
The campaign, entitled “Inheriting the Three Spirits, Leading the Construction of the Two Rare Earth Bases,” reflects CNRE’s ongoing integration of Communist Party directives into operational and personnel strategy. A top municipal labor union official led ideological lectures covering the political importance, theoretical foundation, historical evolution, and local practice of these three ideological pillars. Through relatable storytelling and political messaging, the sessions aimed to inspire loyalty, discipline, and technical excellence across CNRE’s workforce.
Looking ahead, CNRE’s union plans to deepen political indoctrination and expand morale-building activities to unify its vast labor base under the national rare earth development agenda. The goal: to expedite CNRE’s transformation into a “world-class rare earth champion” aligned with China’s strategic industrial goals.
Implications for Western Supply Chains
This event is more than symbolic. It underscores how China’s rare earth strategy is not only about mining and metallurgy—it’s about centralized ideological cohesion and labor discipline in service of national objectives. CNRE, already the world’s largest supplier of light rare earth elements, continues to fuse Party loyalty with productivity, aligning its workforce with the long-term vision of rare earth dominance.
Western producers and policymakers should take note: while the West continues to make progress incrementally (President Donald Trump has issued a couple of executive orders, including a 232 Action on the topic), China is building a politically unified rare earth industrial army. The mobilization of ideology in the rare earth sector represents a competitive asymmetry—China doesn’t just subsidize; it synchronizes these assets as a geopolitical weapon. Without parallel levels of coordination, workforce development, and political will, Western nations risk falling further behind in this critical materials race. Rare Earth Exchanges continues to call for an industrial policy out of Washington DC, for critical minerals, which can include the rare earth element supply chain.
Source:
China Northern Rare Earth Group (北方稀土), official news release, June 2025.
Leave a Reply