Chinese impersonated Texans to sabotage critical US rare earth minerals plant

Chinese agents pretending to be concerned Texans executed an online disinformation campaign against a company building a rare earth minerals facility in Texas for the Department of Defense, the cybersecurity firm Mandiant revealed on Tuesday.

Mandiant found that agents for a pro-China disinformation campaign used fake social media accounts to cast doubt on Lynas Rare Earth Ltd. and other mining firms in an effort to weaken the rare earth minerals supply chain in the United States and elsewhere.

Lynas is the largest rare earth mining company in the world and currently has a contract with the Pentagon to build a facility in Texas.

Mandiant said Chinese actors lied about being local Texans online in order to stir up opposition to Lynas building a rare earth minerals plant in Texas.

"Dragonbridge" is a code name used by Mandiant to identify Chinese disinformation efforts.

Liu Pengyu, a Chinese Embassy spokesman, said that while he has not seen Mandiant's report, he thinks it is the result of "Forces in the world" that want to slander China.

The disinformation campaign comes as China moves to dominate the market for rare earth minerals, which are used in numerous tech productions, including smartphones, TVs, medical equipment, water treatment systems and more.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/06/chinese-impersonated-texans-to-sabotage-critical-us-rare-earth-minerals-plant/