How Yunnan’s mineral wealth and border corridors could solve China’s ‘Malacca dilemma’

With its vast strategic mineral reserves and land corridors to Southeast Asia, China’s southwestern province of Yunnan is vital to the country’s preparedness to counter geopolitical risks, according to researchers specialising in civil-military fusion. Yunnan’s “nationally leading resource reserves” – including gallium, rare earths and other strategic minerals essential for advanced weapons development – made the province indispensable to China’s push for “defence industry mobilisation”, they...