"How should I put this?"

Seeing that Lee Seung-hyun had deliberately paused, Wu Kang hurriedly followed up with an explanation.

"Let me be frank, most of the people in Gongcheng have left in the past two years."

There are basically no job opportunities in the city.

"If this can be done, it will attract many people back to work and provide many jobs for our Gongcheng."

Lin Yifeng frowned.

What type of factory?

Wu Kang and Li Chengxuan hesitated again.

In the end, Lee Seung-hyun shook his head with a wry smile.

"A rare earth factory."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yifeng's expression changed drastically.

Rare earth elements?

"How could this be..."

Lin Yifeng swallowed back the words that were about to come out.

China does indeed ban the export of rare earth elements, but this only happened after the turn of the millennium.

In the 1980s and 1990s, China was still a major exporter of rare earths. This was because the domestic market was not fully understood at the time, and foreign trade was conducted in a way that was not yet fully realized.

It wasn't until the late 1990s, at the beginning of the new millennium, that China realized the importance of rare earth elements and greatly restricted their export and over-sale.

Finally, they even banned the export of rare earth elements.

Wu Kang was also explaining from the side at this time.

"Mitsubishi Group plans to build a rare earth plant here to be responsible for rare earth processing."

"If this can be done, it will create at least a lot of jobs."

"We're doing this under pressure too."

Seeing the two looking troubled, Lin Yifeng could only manage a wry smile.

These days, local governments that cooperate with foreign companies do face considerable internal pressure, especially when it comes to cooperating with Japanese companies.

However, Lin Yifeng had a vague feeling that things were not so simple.

Although rare earth elements are very profitable, the current domestic market price is extremely low, making it unnecessary to build rare earth plants. Importing them is sufficient to meet Mitsubishi Group's normal needs.

On the contrary, Lin Yifeng was more concerned about the related industries of rare earths, namely rare metals.

If it were just rare earth elements, it would be a minor issue, merely the relocation of raw materials.

But when it comes to rare metals, things get complicated.

The special processing methods for rare metals require extremely strict handling of subsequent industrial waste, as the wastewater and waste materials are highly toxic substances.

Although these days, news reports are all about Japan attacking the spirit of environmental protection and touting it to the skies.

Lin Yifeng had no respect for the Japanese methods of handling highly toxic waste.

Based on the clues at hand, Lin Yifeng could only recall one important thing.

Asian toxic factories, cancer villages.