China to increase Arctic research funding

Qu Tanzhou, the director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration which is affiliated with the State Oceanic Administration, has told the China Daily that Beijing is planning to increase “scientific research and expeditions” in the Arctic, to better “deal with the challenges and opportunities arising from the melting ice cover.”

Qu said that “scientific expeditions are the first step” for a larger study that will involve cooperation with other Arctic powers and independent exploration to study “the interaction of the atmosphere, the sea ice and the ocean.”

Since 2004 China has cooperated with Norway to build its only research base—the Yellow River Station on Norway’s Svalbard Island —as China does not have a coastline in the Arctic.

Currently China has one ice breaker, the Xuelong (Snow Dragon) , which was purchased from Ukraine in 1993. Under the new plan, this will be joined with a sister ship.

Earlier this spring, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released an extensive report suggesting that China was closely examining the economic, military, and environmental consequences for Beijing of an ice-free Arctic during the summer months, particularly in light of the large oil, gas, and mineral deposits believed to be in the region.

Qu told the China Daily that the Law of the Sea Convention , which most of the Arctic falls under, “stipulates that the high seas and the resources in the seabed there are the common heritage of mankind.”

This position “could bring China into conflict with Moscow’s rather more expansive notion of the extent of the Russian seabed in the Arctic,” says Paul Goble , a longtime specialist both in the government and in the academy on Eurasia.

Paul Guinnessy

Related link An interview with Qu Tanzhou