Preface
Mongolia is a land neighbor of the mainland, and for such a neighbor, the mainland has always provided various kinds of assistance to Mongolia with the mentality of "being kind to its neighbors".
For example, in early March this year, Mongolia was hit by a severe ice and snow disaster, and many ordinary Mongolians were facing serious difficulties in their lives.
According to British media reports, Mongolia hopes to strengthen cooperation with Britain and open an air route to transport rare earths to the UK.
So, why did Mongolia open such an air route, and what impact would this air route for transporting rare earths have on the mainland's rare earth exports?
Rare Earth Wars
As the competition between China and Western countries in high-tech continues to intensify, the word "rare earth" can be said to be frequently in the headlines of major news.
For rare earth resources, even ordinary people are very aware of the importance of such resources for the development of high and new technologies.
Like the famous F35 fighter in the United States, each fighter of this type consumes about 417 kilograms of rare earths in the production process.
F35 fighter
You must know that the F35 fighter is a very important cutting-edge fighter in the United States and Western countries, and in March this year, the United States approved the full-speed production plan of the F35 fighter.
This means that the F35 fighter will increase its production capacity to about 150 aircraft per year in a short period of time, and behind such a figure is the huge demand for rare earths in the United States.
However, because the mainland is the world's largest exporter of rare earths, in the field of rare earths, the mainland is in a monopoly position in the world. This makes the export of rare earths a "trump card" for the mainland to participate in the great power game.
In the face of the mainland's overwhelming advantage in the rare earth industry, the United States and other Western countries are naturally very clear, so Western countries have been hoping to find a new source of rare earth imports in the world.
The Americans, like themselves, are planning to restart the country's largest "Mount Pass" rare earth mine, which monopolized the global rare earth market in the sixties and seventies of the last century.
However, for the United States, which has been "hollowing out its industry" for a long time, it will face many difficulties and take a lot of time to restart the production of this rare earth mineral.
Therefore, the United States and other Western countries actually very much hope to import a large number of rare earth resources from other countries other than China to get rid of their dependence on Chinese rare earths.
Therefore, when Mongolia, which has a large number of rare earth resources, expresses its willingness to cooperate with them, Western countries are naturally very willing to accept it. But why should Mongolia cooperate with Western countries?
Mongolia's "air corridor"?
Mongolia also has a large number of rare earth resources in the country, and if these rare earth resources can be exploited, Mongolia will have a good chance of getting out of the economic difficulties that the country is facing.
However, due to Mongolia's own weak industrial strength, the country's infrastructure is very imperfect, such as many rare earth mines in Mongolia, and there is also a lack of further development.
However, Mongolia's infrastructure is not sound, but it has a "good neighbor" who is willing to help it.
In today's Mongolia, there is a lot of infrastructure, in fact, with the help of China, which has greatly improved the level of economic development and the daily life of ordinary people.
However, China's goodwill has not been reciprocated, and there are many negative views of China among Mongolians.
In fact, Mongolia, which is surrounded by China and Russia, is neither pro-Russian nor pro-China, and prefers to deal with extraterritorial forces such as Western countries.
After the 90s of the last century, Mongolia has been hoping to introduce the so-called "third neighbor" in the country, and a lot of Western capital entered Mongolia during this period, and controlled a large number of minerals in Mongolia through investment and other means.
In addition, due to the cultural export of Western countries, Mongolian people have a very good view of Western countries and other countries.
For example, in the case of mining by foreign companies, there have been many demonstrations in Mongolia, and although the slogan of these demonstrators is to protest against "corruption", what they are protesting is actually the "plunder" of Mongolia's mineral resources by foreign companies.
However, the demonstrators believe that Mongolia is the southern neighbor of Mongolia as who is "plundering" these mineral resources, but they do not mention the control of Mongolian resources by Western capital.
Therefore, Mongolia, in fact, both the government and the private sector are relatively pro-Western, so it is not surprising that the export of rare earth resources to Western countries is not surprising.
However, for the export of rare earths, it is not possible to have this "desire", and it is necessary to see if there is that ability!
Practices that don't make sense
Mongolia is located in the middle of the two great powers, China and Russia, which means that Mongolian planes must pass through Chinese and Russian airspace wherever they fly from.
However, after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, due to the continuous sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia, many Western airlines no longer fly into Russian airspace.
Therefore, if Mongolia wants to open a so-called "air route" with Britain, it still has to pass through the airspace within the mainland.
But the problem is that the rare earth resources in Mongolia can actually pass through the mainland and be exported to other countries in the world through the ports of the mainland.
Moreover, compared with sea transportation, the cost and volume of air transportation are far behind, so it is a bit confusing that Mongolia and the United Kingdom have to use air traffic to transport rare earths.
More importantly, the production of cheap rare earth products actually requires the support of a complete industrial system, and in today's world, the mainland is the only country with complete rare earth production technology.
In fact, the rare earth resources in many developed countries are also sent to the mainland for processing.
For example, these rare earths sent by Mongolia to the UK may have to be transported to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on the mainland, which is not far from Mongolia, for processing again after they are transported to the UK.
With this effort, Mongolia might as well directly transport rare earths to Inner Mongolia.
It can be said that the discussion between Mongolia and the United Kingdom to establish an air route to transport rare earths itself does not have too many economic factors, but is more likely due to some political considerations.
epilogue
China and Russia are Mongolia's two major neighbors, and the economies of the three countries actually have many complementary aspects, so wholeheartedly strengthening relations with neighboring countries is actually more conducive to Mongolia's own economic development.
Resources
Guangming.com, "Chinese Government Provides Emergency Assistance to Mongolian Government in Response to Severe Ice and Snow Disaster in Mongolia," March 4, 2024
China Youth Daily, "China Provides Emergency Assistance to Mongolia for Ice and Snow Disasters, Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Vivid Practice of Building a Community with a Shared Future between the Two Countries", March 5, 2024
Huanqiu.com: "New Media: The Battle for Rare Earths, China's Unique Position Attracts Attention", November 20, 2023
Global Times: "US media: Pentagon makes 'long-awaited' decision to approve F-35 fighter jet production at full speed" March 16, 2024
People's Daily Online: "Chinese Enterprises Devote Themselves to Building Mongolia's Largest People's Livelihood Project", October 16, 2023
Observer.com, "Mass protests erupt in Mongolia, demonstrators try to storm the National Palace," December 6, 2022