FriedRiceNSpice
Captain
China has one of largest iron ore reserves in world (over 10% of global total) and also among the top 10 in copper reserves. The fact China imports during peacetime does not imply China does not have sufficient reserves. If you are rich, better to buy resources from others than extract yourselves. Just dont end up like the US with regards to rare earths and completely lose the ability to extract and/or process important strategic minerals.Well,China is heavily rely on import of iron ore copper aluminum
Not to mention food such as soybean corn wheat
The single most mineral for modern military production is tungsten. I'll leave it as an exercise for people to find out where the world's tungsten reserves are.