{"id":8533,"date":"2025-07-19T17:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T17:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8533\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T17:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T17:06:14","slug":"chinas-arctic-involvement-highly-exaggerated-harvard-researchers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8533\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Arctic involvement \u2018highly exaggerated,\u2019 Harvard researchers say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Majority of country\u2019s Arctic projects have been either cancelled or are in question<\/p>\n

China\u2019s activities in the Arctic in recent years have been \u201chighly exaggerated\u201d due to \u201calarmist language in terms of scale, scope and risk,\u201d according to research by Harvard University.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is apparent that most of this anxiety is about what might be, not what has actually happened,\u201d researchers for the Belfer Center for science and international affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard\u2019s school of public policy.<\/p>\n

Their paper, titled Cutting Through Narratives on Chinese Arctic Investments, was\u00a0published in June. It was written by Arctic researchers Anders Christoffer Edstr\u00f8m from Norway, Gu\u00f0bj\u00f6rg R\u00edkey Th. Hauksd\u00f3ttir from Iceland, and Whitney Lackenbauer of Trent University in Peterborough, Ont.<\/p>\n

For years, China\u2019s Arctic ambitions have faced international scrutiny.<\/p>\n

In 2013, China was granted observer status at the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental organization of all eight Arctic nations: Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden.<\/p>\n

A few years later, in 2018, Beijing\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0its Polar Silk Road strategy. It envisioned China\u2019s deeper involvement in Arctic governance along with mineral and scientific exploration of the region.<\/p>\n

Since then, China has proclaimed itself a \u201cnear-Arctic state\u201d \u2014 despite not having any territory in the polar areas \u2014 and the country\u2019s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, told<\/a> Nunatsiaq News last year that Arctic affairs should be a concern of a \u201cglobal village.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

China\u2019s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, says Arctic affairs should be a concern of a \u201cglobal village\u201d in an interview with Nunatsiaq News during his s two-day visit to Iqaluit last August. (File photo by Arty Sarkisian)<\/p>\n

Since 2003, China is estimated to have invested more than $90 billion above the Arctic Circle, largely in energy and mineral sectors, according to the U.S. House of Representatives committee on foreign affairs estimates in 2022.<\/p>\n

However, the Harvard researchers say that figure is \u201cinflated\u201d with unsuccessful investments and projects proposed but not implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research finds that these numbers are highly exaggerated and often mobilized to support a narrative in which China is successfully \u2018buying up\u2019 the Arctic region,\u201d the paper said.<\/p>\n

Of 57 Chinese investment projects that researchers list, 18 are active and only one is located in Canada. A majority of the projects have been either cancelled or are in question.<\/p>\n

Of the eight Nordic member nations, only Russia has allowed a significant Chinese presence in its Arctic.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2022, the two countries signed a joint statement proclaiming a relationship with \u201cno limits\u201d including joint oversight of traffic along the Northern Sea Route, 5,600-kilometre shipping passage along Russia\u2019s Arctic coast line.<\/p>\n

As well, the countries agreed on joint naval and coast guard exercises in the Bering Sea, and joint air patrols near the coast of Alaska.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to Canada and the other six \u201clike-minded\u201d Arctic states, nearly all Chinese investment in the region has failed or stalled.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s footprint in Canada\u2019s North only includes a Nunavik nickel mine owned by Jien Canada Mining Ltd. and two mineral development projects in the Yukon and the N.W.T. that have been \u201cin stasis for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChina\u2019s investment record in the Canadian North is not strong, and Chinese companies have also seen significant failures,\u201d the researchers said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

One of those failures was in 2020, when Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Mining Co.\u00a0wanted to buy<\/a>\u00a0the Hope Bay gold mine complex, 150 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay, for $207.4 million.<\/p>\n

The Canadian government rejected that deal<\/a> after a national security review.<\/p>\n

The Harvard researchers say that identifying investments that pose a security risk is a source of \u201cdebate and division.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cArctic states should continue to balance considerations of national interest connected to potential risk, potential economic benefits and societal support before deciding to allow, limit, or reject investments,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Majority of country\u2019s Arctic projects have been either cancelled or are in question China\u2019s activities in the Arctic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-8533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}