Pro-China group targets rare earth mines with Dragonbridge

Australia, Canada, and the United States were targeted by a pro-China influence campaign that aimed to influence public opinion in China's favor by using negative messaging.

According to a report published by the threat intelligence firm Mandiant a week ago, the digital campaign was given the name Dragonbridge. Among the companies that were targeted were the American company USA Rare Earth, the Canadian company Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp, and the Australian company Lynas Rare Earths Ltd.

According to the information provided by Mandiant, "it targeted an industry of strategic significance to the PRC, including specifically three commercial entities challenging the PRC's global market dominance in that industry."

According to the information provided by the company, the objective was to incite environmental protests against the companies in question and to spread alternative narratives as a reaction to the targets' potential or planned involvement in rare earths production activities.

This consisted of a network of thousands of fake accounts spread across a wide variety of social media platforms and forums. These accounts worked together to disseminate content that appeared to raise concerns regarding purported environmental, health, and labor issues relating to the operations of the three companies.

Some of the fake accounts pretended to be residents of Texas while participating in a public Facebook group with 1,200 members called "STOP LYNAS! NO to Lynas Exporting and the Creation of Yet Another Toxic Legacy, "allegations have been made that the mining company places the local population in danger of radioactive contamination and poisoning.

There was a significant amount of content written in Chinese and Malay, but the vast majority of the posts were written in English. In spite of this, it has been reported that the activity has only garnered a modest amount of engagement from other accounts in the form of likes and comments.

This is not the first time that the actor has been connected to disinformation campaigns that have been carried out in support of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The earlier activities in June 2019 were primarily focused on discrediting pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong; however, since then, they have been attempting to physically mobilize protestors in the United States as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the findings of the researchers, "DRAGONBRIDGE's targeting of additional rare earths mining companies underscores the campaign's ability to monitor developments and respond accordingly."