Highlights

• Ruihong Company won the Top Prize at China's 14th Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition for industrializing rare earth functional additives that replace expensive imported materials in high-performance polymers.
• The breakthrough enables China to address strategic priorities including carbon reduction and plastic pollution while reducing reliance on foreign suppliers in advanced plastics and specialty additives.
• With a 5,000-ton-per-year pilot production line already operational, Ruihong plans expansion into biomedical materials and EV cables, signaling China's systematic move downstream into proprietary, high-margin materials platforms.

---

As Rare Earth Exchanges™ reported on Sunday, January 4, China continues to accelerate downstream rare earth innovation, not only through patent volume but now through commercially scalable materials technologies. That trend was reinforced this week when Ruihong Company won a Top Prize at the 14th China Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition – Disruptive Technology Track (opens in a new tab), standing out among 891 national entries.

Ruihong’s award-winning project focuses on the industrialization of rare-earth-modified polymer materials, including specialized compounds and finished products.

The technology directly addresses several strategic Chinese priorities: carbon reduction (“dual-carbon” goals), plastic pollution mitigation, and higher-value utilization of domestic rare earth resources.

Crucially, the breakthrough lies downstream. Ruihong has developed rare earth functional additives—such as environmentally friendly rare earth heat stabilizers and composite flame retardants—that overcome long-standing manufacturing barriers in advanced polymers. These additives can replace expensive imported materials, reducing reliance on foreign suppliers in high-performance plastics while opening new application markets for rare earths beyond magnets and alloys.

The innovation also tackles a structural imbalance long cited by Chinese policymakers: oversupply of low-end polymer materials paired with dependence on imported high-end specialty additives. By leveraging China’s rare earth abundance, the company enables high-value use of high-abundance rare earth elements, a critical shift away from narrow dependence on neodymium-praseodymium magnet demand alone.

From a commercialization standpoint, Ruihong is already operating a 5,000-ton-per-year pilot-scale production line for rare earth functional additives, providing a clear bridge from laboratory innovation to industrial scale. The company now plans to expand into biomedical materials and electric-vehicle cable applications, sectors where performance, safety, and materials control are strategically sensitive.

What’s Relevant Westward?

This development underscores a growing challenge: China is not only dominating rare earth supply, but systematically moving downstream into proprietary materials platforms as Rare Earth Exchanges has continued to warn readers in North America, Europe, and elsewhere. The theory: such innovations will help China reduce import dependence, embed rare earths into high-margin products, and create new competitive barriers for Western polymer, automotive, and advanced materials firms.

What was this Competition?

The China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition is one of the country’s most prestigious and influential national technology competitions, designed to accelerate high-impact innovation and commercialization. Uniquely, it is the only national-level competition that formally integrates participants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, with the explicit goal of concentrating innovation resources across the Greater Bay Area and cross-strait regions.

The 2025competition spans five strategic industry tracks—artificial and embodied intelligence, life and health, new materials and energy/environmental technologies, cultural creativity and sports tech, and fintech—offering RMB 5 million (USD $690,000–$705,000) in total prizes and extensive post-award support.

Eligible non-listed companies (with 2024 revenue under RMB 200 million) compete not only for cash awards but also for deep policy, financing, and market access advantages, including exposure to national industrial funds, state-backed investment platforms, bank credit support, and potential pathways toward high-tech enterprise, “little giant,” unicorn, or national disruptive technology designation. In effect, the competition functions as a state-aligned innovation pipeline, identifying scalable technologies and fast-tracking them into China’s industrial, financial, and regulatory ecosystem.

Disclaimer: This news item is based on reporting (opens in a new tab) from Chinese state-owned media. Information reflects official statements and should be independently verified before forming business, policy, or investment conclusions.

©!-- /wp:paragraph -->