Deng Xiaoping drew up a 10-year national plan for rare earth production and research. Then, finally on schedule, serious mining began at Bayan Obon in the mid-Eighties with the expressed purpose of exporting to Japan and the United States.
It's insane how consequential Deng Xiaoping's leadership has been for China in the modern era. He certainly made many decisions I disagree with, and railroaded China down a path where worker's rights have been eroded at the expense of an export-oriented economy, but god damn he is consistently proven right in the face of events happening now.