China should strengthen management of rare earths exports and intellectual property rights protection to prevent outflows of China's core technologies, representatives from some domestic rare-earth companies said at a meeting convened by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Wednesday. 

They also recommended that the government crack down upon illegal rare-earth extraction to protect valuable resources. 

The NDRC convened the meeting Wednesday to solicit opinions from major rare-earth producers about how to pursue the structural adjustment of China's rare-earth industry. 

Company representatives pointed out that a rare-earth industrial structure led by major producers has come into shape in China. They also pointed out that domestic rare-earth product performance has improved significantly, and some core technologies such as high-performance rare-earth alloys have achieved breakthroughs. 

But problems persist like private mining, indiscriminate excavation, excess production and illegal recycling, they said. 

Officials from the NDRC said that government departments would work out better policies to refine the supervisory mechanism for this crucial industry. 

They told domestic companies to speed up the research and development of green mining of rare-earth minerals and smelting separation technologies. 

It was the NDRC's second meeting since Tuesday about advancing the domestic rare-earth industry. On Tuesday, the NDRC held discussions with domestic rare-earth experts to hear their analysis of the status quo of China's rare-earth industry. 

The rare-earth industry is seen as one of the constraints that can be placed on the US amid rising bilateral trade friction, as a wide range of US manufacturing relies on importing rare earths from China for production.