In 2019, the American lawyer and congressman Matt Gaetz , warned that a “melting Arctic creates a more permissive environment for Russia and China to seize territory.” He’s right.
According to a brand new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), China is using the Arctic to strengthen its superpower status. The world, caution the authors, must wake up to the threat posed by the communists in Beijing.
The paper begins by discussing the Chinese Communist Party’s “ambitious expeditions” and “world-class research facilities” in the region. These investments, note the authors, have elevated the CCP’s voice in all polar affairs and “afforded it an opportunity to shape the emerging geopolitical landscape.” Moreover, the CCP’s “growing physical footprint” in the world’s most remote frontier serves to fortify its “broader strategic and military interests.”
As I have discussed elsewhere, the CCP desperately wants to control the world’s rare earth elements (REEs). The Arctic is a formidable place, but, for a rising superpower like China, it’s also an attractive one. The region has vast deposits of highly valuable mineral resources, including phosphate, bauxite, diamonds, iron ore, and gold. It also has an abundance of silver, copper, and zinc. It is not an exaggeration to say that China wants to loot the Arctic.
Berit Skorstad, a Norwegian academic who has researched the effects of mineral mining on Arctic communities, told me that the Arctic region is undergoing rapid transformations. It is, she noted, warming three times faster than the earth as a whole. As a consequence, significant parts of the Arctic Ocean are now ice-free for many months of the year. “Current estimates,” she said, “indicate that the entire Arctic Ocean will probably be ice-free for part of the year in a few decades.”
This fact is not lost on the CCP. The Arctic is home to plenty of fish. In recent years, due to overly-aggressive fishing practices, the Chinese have exhausted their domestic reserves. Consequently, Chinese fleets have moved into foreign waters. It is possible that very soon they will enter the Arctic. This should concern us all. Chinese companies have acquired a reputation for destroying natural ecosystems, including marine environments. The world is home to 4.1 million fishing fleets. More than one in eight of these belong to China.
Then, of course, there is the sizable matter of the Arctic’s rich mineral resources, including iron ore, copper, nickel, and zinc, in addition to carbon (fossil) based resources like coal, oil, and gas. China, it’s important to note, consumes more than 50 percent of the world’s coal. The Arctic, according to Skorstad, is a veritable treasure chest for “many industrialized countries trying to find secure supplies of many natural resources.” “All these resources,” she told me, “are interesting not only for China but also the industrialized world in general.”
The Arctic region, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), is home to most of the world’s remaining untapped oil and gas reserves. As Arctic ice disappears, and as oil companies seek out new resources, these reserves will become increasingly valuable.
It is estimated that the Arctic has at least 90-billion barrels of oil, 1,669 trillion cubic feet of gas, and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. Other assessments suggest that the Arctic currently accounts for roughly 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil, almost one-third of undiscovered natural gas, and 20% of undiscovered liquid natural gas. Cumulatively, this represents about one-quarter of the world’s undiscovered, recoverable oil and gas resources.
More than one-third of this untapped oil is thought to be located in far north Alaska, a sprawling region of Alaska that extends from the Arctic Circle to the Arctic Ocean. In other words, it’s not inconceivable to think that the CCP will encroach on U.S. territory. In truth, considering all the U.S. farmland China already owns, it already has.
The Arctic matters to Europe too. After all, the territories of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden extend into the region. Moreover, three EU Member States (Finland, Sweden, and Denmark) are members of the Arctic Council, and a number of EU countries, including France, Germany, and Italy, are permanent observers.
As Josep Borrell, a Spanish politician serving as high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has noted, Europe must acknowledge the considerable security issues associated with a more exposed Arctic region. “China,” he cautions, “is becoming increasingly interested in the economic potential of the region and the possibilities for shipping offered by the melting of boreal sea ice.” China, he concludes, must be considered a “near Arctic state.”
If the CCP has its way, China will soon be much more than a “near Arctic state.” It will be an Arctic superpower.
China’s Arctic Ambitions Pose a Threat to the Western World
Drift ice camp in the middle of the Arctic Ocean as seen from the deck of icebreaker Xue Long.
Photo by Timo Palo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In 2019, the American lawyer and congressman Matt Gaetz , warned that a “melting Arctic creates a more permissive environment for Russia and China to seize territory.” He’s right.
According to a brand new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), China is using the Arctic to strengthen its superpower status. The world, caution the authors, must wake up to the threat posed by the communists in Beijing.
The paper begins by discussing the Chinese Communist Party’s “ambitious expeditions” and “world-class research facilities” in the region. These investments, note the authors, have elevated the CCP’s voice in all polar affairs and “afforded it an opportunity to shape the emerging geopolitical landscape.” Moreover, the CCP’s “growing physical footprint” in the world’s most remote frontier serves to fortify its “broader strategic and military interests.”
As I have discussed elsewhere, the CCP desperately wants to control the world’s rare earth elements (REEs). The Arctic is a formidable place, but, for a rising superpower like China, it’s also an attractive one. The region has vast deposits of highly valuable mineral resources, including phosphate, bauxite, diamonds, iron ore, and gold. It also has an abundance of silver, copper, and zinc. It is not an exaggeration to say that China wants to loot the Arctic.
Berit Skorstad, a Norwegian academic who has researched the effects of mineral mining on Arctic communities, told me that the Arctic region is undergoing rapid transformations. It is, she noted, warming three times faster than the earth as a whole. As a consequence, significant parts of the Arctic Ocean are now ice-free for many months of the year. “Current estimates,” she said, “indicate that the entire Arctic Ocean will probably be ice-free for part of the year in a few decades.”
This fact is not lost on the CCP. The Arctic is home to plenty of fish. In recent years, due to overly-aggressive fishing practices, the Chinese have exhausted their domestic reserves. Consequently, Chinese fleets have moved into foreign waters. It is possible that very soon they will enter the Arctic. This should concern us all. Chinese companies have acquired a reputation for destroying natural ecosystems, including marine environments. The world is home to 4.1 million fishing fleets. More than one in eight of these belong to China.
Then, of course, there is the sizable matter of the Arctic’s rich mineral resources, including iron ore, copper, nickel, and zinc, in addition to carbon (fossil) based resources like coal, oil, and gas. China, it’s important to note, consumes more than 50 percent of the world’s coal. The Arctic, according to Skorstad, is a veritable treasure chest for “many industrialized countries trying to find secure supplies of many natural resources.” “All these resources,” she told me, “are interesting not only for China but also the industrialized world in general.”
The Arctic region, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), is home to most of the world’s remaining untapped oil and gas reserves. As Arctic ice disappears, and as oil companies seek out new resources, these reserves will become increasingly valuable.
It is estimated that the Arctic has at least 90-billion barrels of oil, 1,669 trillion cubic feet of gas, and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. Other assessments suggest that the Arctic currently accounts for roughly 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil, almost one-third of undiscovered natural gas, and 20% of undiscovered liquid natural gas. Cumulatively, this represents about one-quarter of the world’s undiscovered, recoverable oil and gas resources.
More than one-third of this untapped oil is thought to be located in far north Alaska, a sprawling region of Alaska that extends from the Arctic Circle to the Arctic Ocean. In other words, it’s not inconceivable to think that the CCP will encroach on U.S. territory. In truth, considering all the U.S. farmland China already owns, it already has.
The Arctic matters to Europe too. After all, the territories of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden extend into the region. Moreover, three EU Member States (Finland, Sweden, and Denmark) are members of the Arctic Council, and a number of EU countries, including France, Germany, and Italy, are permanent observers.
As Josep Borrell, a Spanish politician serving as high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has noted, Europe must acknowledge the considerable security issues associated with a more exposed Arctic region. “China,” he cautions, “is becoming increasingly interested in the economic potential of the region and the possibilities for shipping offered by the melting of boreal sea ice.” China, he concludes, must be considered a “near Arctic state.”
If the CCP has its way, China will soon be much more than a “near Arctic state.” It will be an Arctic superpower.
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