Chinese agents pretending to be concerned Texans executed an online disinformation campaign against a company building a rare earth minerals facility in Texas for the Department of Defense, the cybersecurity firm Mandiant revealed on Tuesday. The Pentagon later released a statement confirming Mandiant’s findings. Mandiant found that agents for a pro-China disinformation campaign used fake social media accounts to cast doubt on Lynas Rare Earth Ltd. and other mining firms in an effort to weaken the rare earth minerals supply chain in the United States and elsewhere. Lynas is the largest rare earth mining company in the world and currently has a contract with the Pentagon to build a facility in Texas. Mandiant said Chinese actors lied about being local Texans online in order to stir up opposition to Lynas building a rare earth minerals plant in Texas. They used thousands of fake Twitter and Facebook accounts to claim the plant would cause permanent environmental damage, in addition to exposing residents to harmful contamination that could cause cancer, gene mutation and newborn deformities. Source: americanmilitarynews.com