China launches campaign to crack down on strategic minerals smuggling

China has launched a special campaign to crack down on the smuggling of strategic minerals, a commerce ministry statement showed on Friday.

Since China imposed export controls on strategic minerals such as gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten and some rare earths, some overseas entities have colluded with domestic lawbreakers to continuously renovate their smuggling and export methods in an attempt to evade crackdown, the statement said.

The campaign urges government departments to target typical evasion methods such as false reporting, concealment, smuggling, and “third-country” re-routing, the statement said.

(By Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)