Rare earth (RE) trade competition is becoming fierce, and an investigation of the global value chain (GVC) of a country's RE industry should place it in a competitive network. This article adopts the complex network method to analyse the evolution of international RE competition patterns from the perspective of the industry chain, and evaluates the impact of RE competition on GVC status using a panel regression model. The results show that competition at different stages is becoming increasingly fierce, among which the downstream competition is the most intense, with more than 140 competitors. China and Germany have remarkable competitiveness in downstream products. In addition, RE competition landscape drives GVC upgrading by increasing the number of competitors and the tightness of competition, and the downstream has the greatest impact. An increase of 1 in tightness of competition of upstream, midstream and downstream products upgrade the GVC by approximately 0.359, 0.211, 2.744 units, respectively. Further, the impact on GVC upgrading of the competition landscape in high economic countries is more significant than that in countries with a low economic level. This study suggests that countries can upgrade their GVC by improving technology and establishing stable international relations with important trading partners.

稀土（RE）贸易竞争日趋激烈，对一国稀土产业全球价值链（GVC）的考察应将其置于竞争网络中。本文采用复杂网络方法从产业链的角度分析国际可再生​​能源竞争格局的演变，并采用面板回归模型评估可再生能源竞争对全球价值链状况的影响。结果表明，不同阶段的竞争日趋激烈，其中下游竞争最为激烈，有140多家竞争者。中德两国下游产品竞争力显着。此外，可再生能源竞争格局通过增加竞争者数量和竞争激烈程度来推动全球价值链升级，其中下游影响最大。上游、中游和下游产品的竞争强度每增加 1 个，GVC 分​​别提升约 0.359、0.211、2.744 个单位。此外，高经济国家竞争格局对全球价值链升级的影响比低经济国家更为显着。这项研究表明，各国可以通过改进技术和与重要贸易伙伴建立稳定的国际关系来升级其全球价值链。