China’s anti-spy agency warns of foreign bids to smuggle key minerals in resource race

The warning from the Ministry of State Security on Saturday came as it revealed two antimony smuggling cases, one involving a family-run criminal network and the other a group of traffickers.

“Certain foreign countries, in an effort to expand their reserves of rare metals such as antimony, have sought to circumvent China’s export controls in order to obtain our scarce strategic resources,” the ministry said in an article published on its social media platform.

“Such actions have already posed a real threat to China’s national security and interests.”

Eight suspects were arrested and faced criminal prosecution for trying to smuggle high-purity antimony ingots, with a state security investigation revealing a smuggling ring centred around a Chinese family, the article said.

The ringleader, who is based overseas, financed the operation and liaised with domestic producers, placing orders through third-party shell companies. Meanwhile, other relatives handled the smuggling and transit of the goods through a third country before final delivery.