The Arctic might be the next frontier in China-U.S. rivalry
January 21, 2020 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
The fight for power and global influence between the U.S. and China may have found another focal point: the Arctic region, the South China Morning Post reports. In a 2018 white paper, Beijing – referring to itself as a “near-Arctic state” – announced that it would incorporate the region into its Belt and Road Initiative. China will “play a major role in expanding the network of shipping routes in the Arctic and facilitating the economic and social progress of the coastal states along the routes”, the paper read. Last May: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked China at a meeting of the Arctic Council. “There are only Arctic states and non-Arctic states. No third category exists, and claiming otherwise entitles China to exactly nothing,” Pompeo said, indicating that he was very suspicious of the idea of China building a “polar Silk Road”.
The rapid decrease in Arctic summer sea ice in recent decades has attracted the interest of many more countries than China to the region because it opens previously frozen sea lanes, allowing faster, shorter and cheaper commercial trade between Asia and Europe. By the middle of this century, shipping between the continents will be 10 to 12 days quicker through the Arctic than through the Suez Canal, according to one study commissioned by the British government. The Northern Sea Route Information Office said around 20 vessels a year had already been plying the northern route in recent years. The Arctic economy has four centers of growth – mineral resources, fisheries, logistics and tourism – according to the study published in 2017, which estimates the region could attract USD100 billion in investment through 2027. “The Arctic is the last frontier for China’s dramatically expanding world vision,” said Zhang Xin, Associate Professor at the School of Advanced International and Area Studies at Shanghai’s East China Normal University. He compared the Arctic frontier sentiment in China to the U.S. quest to put a man on the moon in the 1960s and the European age of exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries.
China has opened a joint research facility with Iceland, with agreements for similar centers signed with Finnish and Russian scientific institutions. Scientific progress is the “most meaningful” of China’s Arctic objectives, according to Liu Xu, Assistant Professor in the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing. The others were sea routes, energy resources, environmental protection, and forging closer ties with Arctic countries, he said. But the U.S. is worried that China might also use the Arctic for military purposes.
Development of an economic corridor in the Arctic “requires extensive construction and reconstruction of the infrastructure along the entire route from Russian Chukotka in the east to Iceland and Greenland in the west”, Gao Tianming, Director at the Arctic Blue Economy Research Center of Harbin Engineering University said. That included deepwater ports with modern logistics and services, and refueling points for vessels on the entire route from China to Europe and back.” In such a situation, future development of the corridor and China’s position in the initiative depend on the willingness of Nordic countries and Russia to welcome China’s contribution,” Gao said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
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