By Andrew Latham
What grand future had Beijing planned for itself in the Arctic? Leaving aside the massively overblown claims that China has committed itself to dominating the region, aspiring to become the Arctic superpower, there is little doubt that Beijing has long aspired to become a major player in the high north.
Climate change and the shrinking of the polar ice cap have transformed the Arctic into what China officially classifies as one of the world’s “new strategic frontiers,” a space ripe with new opportunities to extract natural resources (oil, gas, rare earth elements and even fish), to invest in infrastructure and to develop new and more secure shipping routes (the Northern Sea Route and the Transpolar Sea Route).
This piece was originally published in The Hill on August 23, 2023. Read more HERE.