WTO rare earth ruling is unfair

WTO officials are also advised to come to China and have a look at the enormous damage excessive rare earth mining has inflicted on the environment.

China has long been a victim of excessive rare earth mining and has only started to resolve the problems recently.

China to strengthen rare earth industry management

WTO vetoes China's rare earths policy

For decades, China, with about 23 percent of the world's total rare earth reserves, has been feeding more than 90 percent of the world's demand for the metals.

China's domination of the global rare earth market is an unwanted gift from some developed countries led by the United States.

The United States, with one of the world's largest rare earth reserves, dominated this market from the mid 1960s to late 1980s, and then started to gradually close down mines, citing huge environmental and resource costs.

This dominating status came at a huge price - in some small towns in East China's Jiangxi province, where reserves of precious ion-absorbed-type rare earths abound, lavish exploitation of the metals since the late 1980s has not only destroyed local landscapes, but also poisoned streams and crops.

After comparing the environmental disasters caused by rare earth mining in China and the natural sceneries above rare earth reserves in the United States, the WTO would be able to give a fair verdict.