A study on spatial-temporal pattern evolution of global rare earth trade network and China's status change
In order to describe the evolution process of global rare earth trade clearly,based on the United Nations commodity trade data from 1991 to 2021,social network analysis method was used to sort out the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of global rare earth trade pattern since 1991.The results show that:① In terms of the structure of rare earth trade prod-ucts,downstream products always dominate the import and export of rare earth.China has be-come a major importer and exporter of rare earth with its strong market demand and resource en-dowment.② In terms of network structure,the complexity of global rare earth trade network is gradually increasing,showing the characteristics of network structure dominated by exporting countries,and the trading countries with high node degree are in the core position in the whole network."Peer-to-peer"trade patterns are obvious and economies are highly dependent on each other.③ The interdependence degree of rare earth trade between China and other countries(re-gions)is deepening,the scale of individual network is expanding,the role of"bridge"in the rare earth trade network is significantly improved,the ability to use structural holes is increasing year by year,and the flexibility and freedom of the network are constantly enhanced.
rare earth tradecomplex networktopological structurespatial and temporal pat-ternChina
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
