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Opinion
China’s engagement in the Arctic is part and parcel of being a global power
As a recent study shows, Beijing’s activities and investments in the Arctic have been exaggerated in conventional media discourse
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Barry Zellen, PhD, is a research scholar in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut.
A report and interactive map from Harvard University’s Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, “Cutting Through Narratives on Chinese Arctic Investments”, published last month and co-authored by an international team of scholars argues that China’s presence in the Arctic has been exaggerated by numerous analysts and commentators. This much-needed breath of fresh air generated a healthy – if short-lived and industry- and geographically concentrated – rise in scepticism of the conventional but false narrative on China’s activities in the Arctic region.
The Harvard University report says that “Chinese Arctic ambitions and activities are contentious” and analysts in the seven Arctic states “often frame Chinese investments in an adversarial way, describing Chinese activity in alarmist language in terms of scale, scope and risk”.
The study points to a tendency to mix proposed investments with actual investments. It finds that the figures supporting these claims are inflated and include unsuccessful investment projects and proposals that have not been implemented. It cites Greenland as an example: despite Greenland emerging as the centre of debate about Chinese investments in the Arctic, much of the anxiety concerns what might happen rather than what has transpired.
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