I am going to be the contrarian here, as I have been studying Chinese energy and mineralogy for decades.
Global and universally acceptable narrative is designed to favor China in nearly every category. This includes across our IC.
As well, specific information has been largely sanitized, or for political reason re-classified in the late 2008 and 2009.
So what I am about to say can only remain to some degree anecdotal, albeit there are hints all over the open web.
In a nutshell, China has vast untapped reserves of iron ore (including “high grade”), vast reserves of rare-earth minerals, and very significant (largely untapped) reserves of valuable and marketable energy.
The CCP and Moscow HQ’d CIS have also worked in conjunction to “put the lid on it”. Actually, Russian Academy of Sciences and RIA Novasti had some of the most comprehensive surveys completed, with several of them verified by Western sources decades ago.
There have now been successful efforts with survey’s to “lock it up” at various levels in the US, including at the corporate, academic, and governmental.
In reality, China is implementing global colonialism, with the goal of global communism dominated by China.
This is end game stuff.
By controlling and siphoning all global resources, by default China neutralizes potential foreign enemy efforts, ascends above all other political jurisdictions in importance, and creates global dependency under the Chinese Communist Politburo.
This is just an early phase, if not stopped.
Sure China has resources, but they aren’t comparable to its production.
Take iron. China makes 57% of the world’s steel. There is no way it has that same portion of the iron ore reserves. It can’t maintain that steel industry without huge imports from the rest of the world.