For the first time since 2018, China is increasing its Antarctic footprint. A Washington-based think tank says Beijing has resumed construction of its fifth station at the South Pole, worrying western governments.
According to the report "Frozen Frontiers – China’s great power ambitions in the polar regions," published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) China “has undertaken ambitious expeditions and developed world-class facilities” that serve “to advance China’s broader strategic and military interests.”
China calls itself a “near-Arctic state” and wants to become a “polar powerhouse” by 2030.
According to the CSIS report, climate change is opening up hitherto frozen waterways, which may serve the interests of Beijing’s trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and thus expand Beijing’s influence in the world at large.
Officially China's presence at the north- and south poles is purely scientific. "China, like other countries, is studying the climate in particular and using the Arctic as a key area to understand climate better," Brian Hart, one of the co-authors of the CSIS report, told RFI.
Countries that have questions about China's ambitions and its interests need to make sure that we keep our eyes on China and make sure that we push for maximum transparency.
PODCAST: Brian Hart, CSIS Fellow on China's expansion into the Arctic
On top of that, he says, "Chinese strategists see a silver lining there: as the climate shifts, new pathways within the Arctic for commercial shipping can potentially be opened up," substantially reducing transportation costs for goods from China to Europe.
White paper
China’s State Council issued a white paper on its “Arctic Policy” on 26 January 2018, which states as goals to “understand, protect, develop and participate in the governance of the Arctic, so as to safeguard the common interests of all countries and the international community.” China pledges commitment to “the existing framework of international law including the UN Charter, UNCLOS, treaties on climate change and the environment.”
China has two observation stations in the Arctic, the Yellow River Station on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago and the China-Iceland Joint Arctic Science Observatory (Ciao) located near the Islandic town of Akureyri.
According to the CSIS report, a third facility planned for Sweden has been put on hold because of suspected ties with China’s army.
The Yellow River station, a two-storey building in Ny-Alesund, Spitsergen (Svalbard) opened in 2004, ostensibly to monitor the aurora borealis (northern lights) phenomenon.
It was China’s first arctic scientific research station. Spitsbergen, a Norwegian territory strategically located between Russia and the North Pole.
Yellow River Station #黄河站, Svalbard guarded by stone lions 斯瓦尔巴石獅子. Source: PRIC pic.twitter.com/PdeI5wwaov
— Jichang Lulu (@jichanglulu) May 1, 2014
Halldor Johannsson, vice-chair of the observatory, says that China “basically paid for all of it.” Johannsson rejects “concerns about China using the facility for non-scientific purposes” like monitoring Nato airspace.
Construction of what has since become the Ciao station started in 2016 and followed an agreement between the Polar Research Institute of China (Pric) and Iceland’s Aurora Observatory, a non-profit foundation. Ciao formally opened 18 October 2018, its importance highlighted by a visit of the Chinese ambassador to Iceland in June 2022.
Concerns over military intelligence gathering
But the “National Strategy for the Artic Region” issued by the US White House in October 2022 warned that China “seeks to increase its influence in the Arctic through an expanded slate of economic, diplomatic, scientific, and military activities,” adding that Beijing “used these scientific engagements to conduct dual-use research with intelligence or military applications in the Arctic.”
A report by the Rand Corporation (“China’s Strategy and Activities in the Arctic”) found that “Chinese investments and presence in the North American sections of the Arctic remain fairly limited,” mainly because of “US, Danish, and Canadian efforts to block or otherwise restrict Chinese investments in industries identified as being critical to national and Nato security interests.”
Cooperation with Sweden stopped when Stockholm put a halt to Chinese involvement in the Esrange Space Center, near Kiruna, over concerns about possible “military intelligence gathering and surveillance.” China had used the base for its first overseas satellite ground station in 2016. The CSIS report lists five instances of Arctic states blocking cooperation with China over safety concerns.
As a result of this, says the CSIS report, China is increasing its investments in Russia as it “looks to Moscow as its strategic partner in the Arctic,” which fits in a general Beijing inclination to link up with Russia, more dependent on China since it was hit by western sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Antarctic action
In the South Pole region too, CSIS notices increased Chinese activity.
Currently, a handful of countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Argentina, Chile, the UK and France claim slices of the Antarctic region.
In 1983, China signed the 1961 Antarctic Treaty. which allows Beijing to conduct "substantial research activity there." Currently, 44 countries have acceded the treaty. In recent years, China has become increasingly interested in the potential resources Antarctica may hold, including minerals and oil, establishing four research stations, while a fifth is about to be finalised.
Hart, the CSIS researcher, points out that "there was a bit of a delay and a pause in construction of China's fifth Antarctic station. But we were able to show with satellite imagery that the construction on that has picked back up.
"A lot of the assets that will be at this new station and that already exist at China's other stations can be leveraged for military purposes."
In 2021, France, which claims a slice of the Antarctic pizza, issued its official report on polar strategy “Balancing the extremes” warning that ”the claims (in Antarctica) made by China presenting itself as a near- Arctic nation and linking up with Russia, could also … call into question the uniqueness of the Antarctic Treaty. “
Reason to worry?
"The key there is that other countries that have questions need to make sure that we keep our eyes on China and push for maximum transparency," says Hart.
Even if the ice disappears from the poles, and the Antarctic becomes habitable, the Antarctic Treaty System is "specifically designed to make Antarctica a space that is void of geopolitical competition and disputes over territory," says Hart, while it "explicitly outlaws military activity.
"The goal there is to make Antarctica a place that is broadly neutral territory ... and I hope that's the way that it remains indefinitely."
