Where is the way for rare earth industry of China: An analysis via ANP-SWOT approach

China monopolizes the rare earths resource, production, consumption, and export of rare earth products, while it has less opportunity to control the international market price. The issues of over-exploitation, excessive production and environmental pollution in China tend to be serious for a long time. In addition, poor scientific and technological innovation abilities limit the development of domestic rare earth industry. The Chinese government has implemented a series of export restriction policies to solve these problems. Due to the trade tension, the export restriction policies are abolished, and the China's rare earth firms will meet new problems. This study aims to provide an ANP-SWOT approach for interdependent analysis and prioritizing the rare earth industry in China. We analyze the internal and external environment factors, develop five short-term strategies and four long-term strategies to determine the optimal strategy of rare earth industry development plan. The results show that the best short-term development strategies for China's rare earth industry are the protection of key resources, mining right integration, and the best long-term strategies are establishing of national strategic reserve system of rare earth and improving the technical innovation capacity.