Pro-China Group Uses Dragonbridge Campaign to Target Rare Earth Mining Companies

A pro-China influence campaign^[1]
singled out rare earth mining companies in Australia, Canada, and
the U.S. with negative messaging in an unsuccessful attempt to
manipulate public discourse to China’s benefit.

Targeted firms included Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths Ltd,
Canada’s Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp, and the American company
USA Rare Earth, threat intelligence firm Mandiant said in a report
last week, calling the digital campaign
Dragonbridge.

“It targeted an industry of strategic significance to the PRC,
including specifically three commercial entities challenging the
PRC’s global market dominance^[2] in that industry,”
Mandiant noted^[3].

The goal, the company noted, was to instigate environmental
protests against the companies and propagate counter-narratives in
response to potential or planned rare earths production activities
involving the targets.

This comprised a network of thousands of inauthentic accounts
across numerous social media platforms and forums, that worked in
tandem to disseminate content that seemingly raised concerns over
alleged environmental, health, and labor issues over the operations
of the three firms.

Some of the bogus accounts masqueraded as Texas citizens in a
public 1,200-member Facebook group^[4]
called “STOP LYNAS! NO to Lynas Exporting and Creating Another
Toxic Legacy,” alleging the mining firm risks exposing local
populations to radioactive contamination and poisoning.

A majority of the posts were primarily in English, with limited
content written in Chinese and Malay. That said, the activity is
said to have received only limited engagement in the form of likes
and comments from other accounts.

This is not the first time the actor has been linked to
disinformation operations conducted in support of the People’s
Republic of China (PRC). While earlier activities in June 2019 were
primarily focused on discrediting pro-democracy protests in Hong
Kong, they have since sought to physically mobilize protestors^[5] in the U.S. in response
to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“DRAGONBRIDGE’s targeting of additional rare earths mining
companies underscores the campaign’s ability to monitor
developments and respond accordingly,” the researchers said.