This plays also a role, but a smaller one as the rare earth don’t add much to the ability to offer cheaper prices, according to many analysts (such as by Rhodium Group, for example).

But the rare earth mining projects under Chinese control don’t not only raise social (the forced labour allegation also exist in the mining industry worldwide) but also environmental issues. The problem is that China applies very lax ecological standards when it comes to mining in both its domestic as well as China-controlled foreign mining.

Rare-earth mining has devastated China’s environment, as one investigation found some years ago,

… The pollution resulting from rare-earth mining has created soil incapable of supporting crops and water supplies have been contaminated. Chinese officials have attempted to counteract these threats by shutting down a large number of mines, especially the smaller and the illegal ones, but there are still severe, large-scale threats that remain unresolved …

From north near the Mongolian border to south in Guangdong, China is struggling to clean-up the environment polluted by mining and some claim they are making things worse. The clean-up process is expensive and time-consuming, and some say it could be 50-100 years for the environment to recover …

In Myanmar, a country where China supports the ruling military junta and that controls nearly 90% of global rare earth processing capacity, the rare earth boom comes at terrible cost to the environment and local communities. A recent investigation suggests that the impact on workers’ health, on the environment and on local communities continue to be devastating.

A similar situation can be found in Indonesia, which is home to the world’s largest Nickel reserves. As 75% of the Indonesian Nickel industry is controlled by China, Jakarta recently changed its policy to prioritize domestic processing so that the country could benefit more from its own reserves. As a result, Chinese firms like Tsingshan, Huayou, and Brunp face output cuts and sunk assets, which led to protest by the Chinese party-state,

… The Chinese business association in Indonesia had collectively and publicly lodged a complaint with the host government in this manner. The fact that the letter was copied to the Chinese embassy made it clear it was no longer just a business dispute … Chinese firms control about 75% of Indonesia’s nickel refining capacity, with Tsingshan and Jiangsu Delong alone accounting for more than 70% …

Let’s hope Indonesia will prevail in this, and others will follow, particularly in the implementation of adequate environmental and labour protection laws.

The world has been buying cheap Chinese (and to an extent), Asian stuff for decades. This is nothing new. Chinese carmakers (as well as other industries) use forced labour. It is China that rejected to open their supply chains and provide full transparency as demanded by the EU supply chain law.

German carmaker Volkswagen, for example, exited its Chinese joint venture with SAIC in Xinjiang a couple of years ago just because of this. The perpetrator is is China and its carmakers.

Also many Chinese cars are made in Europe, but i cant remember what countries so don’t know if they fall under EU rules.

No, most Chinese cars sold in Europe are made in China. The number of cars by Chinese brands that are made in Europe are less than 1% of the total production volume in Europe. This is next to nothing compared to Germany producing 21% of cars sold in the EU, followed by Spain, Czechia, France, and Slovakia, all well above China. Even according to Chinese carmakers own forecasts, their combined production volume to be produced in Europe will remain negligible compared to any European brand in the coming years.

It’s not entirely that. I am a EU fan but the carmakers have walked into mess themselves. They stopped thinking of the customer and are producing inefficient, expensive anti consumer car offerings and expecting others to adjust for their bad behavior.