Ministry foils gallium smuggling bid

The Ministry of State Security said it has foiled an attempt to smuggle gallium, and called for greater public awareness of the need to protect the nation's key mineral resources.

Gallium is a rare metal that plays a unique role in the manufacturing of computer chips, optic fibers and new-energy batteries, and also has military applications. China put the rare metal on its list of controlled substances for export in August last year in light of changing global situations.

On Monday, the ministry revealed on its official WeChat account that it had recently stopped a bottle of gallium from being smuggled out of the country, located the suspects and penalized them in accordance with the law.