The construction of China's fifth base in Antarctica worries the West

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 previously frozen waterways, which could serve the interests of Beijing's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and thereby 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, studies the climate in particular and uses the Arctic as a key area to understand the climate better," Brian Hart, one of the co-authors of the CSIS report, told RFI.

PODCAST: Brian Hart, CSIS Fellow on China's Arctic expansion

Jan van der Made

Beyond that, he says, "Chinese strategists see a silver lining there: as the climate changes, new routes within the Arctic for commercial shipping could potentially open up," significantly reducing the cost of transporting goods from China to Europe.

white paper

China's State Council issued a white paper on its "Arctic Policy" on January 26, 2018, stating as its goal to "understand, protect, develop and participate in the governance of the Arctic, to protect 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, climate change treaties and the environment."

China has two observation stations in the Arctic, the Yellow River Station in Norway's Svalbard archipelago and the China-Iceland Joint Arctic Science Observatory (Ciao) located near the Icelandic city of Akureyri.

According to the CSIS report, a third facility planned for Sweden has been put on hold due to suspected ties to China's military.

The Yellow River station, a two-story building in Ny-Alesund, Spitsergen (Svalbard) opened in 2004, ostensibly to monitor the Northern Lights phenomenon.

It was China's first Arctic scientific research station. Spitsbergen, a Norwegian territory strategically located between Russia and the North Pole.

Halldor Johannsson, deputy chairman of the observatory, says China "basically paid for everything". Johannsson dismisses "concerns that China is using the facility for non-scientific purposes" such as monitoring NATO airspace.

Construction of what has since become the Ciao station began 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 on 18 October 2018, its importance highlighted by a visit by the Chinese ambassador to Iceland in June 2022.

Concerns over military intelligence gathering

But the "National Strategy for the Arctic Region" issued by the US White House in October 2022 warned that China "seeks to increase its influence in the Arctic through an expanded list of economic, diplomatic, scientific and military activities", adding that Beijing "used these scientific engagements to pursue 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 investment and presence in the North American parts of the Arctic remains quite limited", mainly due to "US, Danish and Canadian efforts to block or otherwise restrict Chinese investment in industries identified as critical to national and NATO security interests."

Cooperation with Sweden was halted when Stockholm put an end to Chinese involvement in the Esrange Space Center, near Kiruna, due to concerns about possible "military intelligence gathering and surveillance". China had used the base for its first foreign satellite ground station in 2016. The CSIS report lists five cases of Arctic states blocking cooperation with China due to security concerns.

As a result, the CSIS report says, China is increasing its investment in Russia as it "looks towards Moscow as its strategic partner in the Arctic", fitting into a general Beijing tendency to tie with Russia, more dependent on China since it was hit by Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Antarctic action

CSIS also notices increased Chinese activity in the South Pole region.

Currently, a handful of countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Argentina, Chile, the United Kingdom and France, claim parts of the Antarctic region.

In 1983, China signed the 1961 Antarctic Treaty, allowing Beijing to conduct "considerable research activity there." Currently, 44 countries have joined the treaty. In recent years, China has become increasingly interested in the potential resources that Antarctica may hold, including minerals and oil, and has established four research stations, while a fifth is nearing completion.

Hart, the CSIS researcher, points out that "there was a bit of a delay and a pause in the construction of China's fifth Antarctic station. But we were able to show with satellite images that construction on it has picked up again.

"Many of the assets that will be on this new station and that are already on China's other stations can be used for military purposes."

In 2021, France, which claims a piece of the Antarctic pizza, issued its official report on the polar strategy "Balancing the extremes" warning that "the claims (in Antarctica) made by China present themselves as a near-Arctic nation and tie approach to Russia could also ... call into question the uniqueness of the Antarctic Treaty."

Cause for concern?

"The key there is that other countries that have questions need to make sure that we keep our eyes on China and strive for maximum transparency," says Hart.

Even if the ice disappears from the poles, and Antarctica becomes habitable, the Antarctic Treaty System is "specifically designed to make Antarctica a space free of geopolitical competition and disputes over territory," Hart says, while "explicitly prohibiting military activity .

"The goal there is to make Antarctica a place that is largely neutral territory ... and I hope that it remains that way indefinitely."

French presence at the South Pole

France's territorial claim to Antarctica is Adelie Land, an "overseas territory" and part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Taaf), which also includes the islands of Crozet and Kerguelen, Saint Paul and the Amsterdam group, and the "scattered islands." around Madagascar.

France has two research stations in Antarctica: Dumont d'Urville, located in the coastal zone of Adelie Land, and Concordia, on the Antarctic High Plateau. The stations are managed by the Brest-based Institut Polaire Francaise Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV,) which implements France's polar policy. French scientific activities in Antarctica are supported by the navy-operated icebreaker Astrolabe.

French Antarctic research ranks 5th in the world, with only Germany and the UK ahead in Europe.

Originally published on RFI


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