Power Playbook
Beijing's Bid to Secure Overseas Transition Minerals
New research reveals how China has methodically strengthened its supply chain over the past two decades by financing critical mineral extraction across the developing world
Photo by Mineral Vision via Adobe Stock, used under the Standard license
About the Research
A small group of minerals are at the heart of the global energy transition, enabling innovations in clean energy technologies and underpinning critical industries such as electric vehicles and advanced manufacturing. As nations strive to meet ambitious decarbonization targets, the strategic control and supply chain dynamics of these minerals may come to define geopolitical and economic power. Against this backdrop, China has emerged as the preeminent leader in transition mineral production, processing, and downstream technologies.
Over the last two years, AidData researchers have worked to uncover how China has steadily consolidated its dominance in the transition minerals sector. Our new report, Power Playbook: Beijing’s Bid to Secure Overseas Transition Minerals, reveals how China has methodically strengthened its supply chain over the past two decades by financing transition mineral extraction across the developing world, positioning itself as a global powerhouse in processing and refining these essential materials. The report focuses on five "focus" minerals defined by the International Energy Agency (IEA)—including copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements—and examines how China’s official development finance initiatives, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), are leveraged to achieve its goals.
To support our analysis, we drew upon the latest version of our Global Chinese Development Finance Dataset to assembled a new, specialized dataset, AidData’s Chinese Financing for Transition Minerals Dataset, Version 1.0. This dataset captures $56.9 billion of Chinese official sector loan commitments from 2000 to 2021 for overseas projects involving transition mineral extraction or processing. It provides granular information on financial contributions; mine characteristics; financiers, co-financiers, recipients, and implementers; loan events (including their terms); ownership (including equity stakes); and detailed project descriptions.
