China in the Arctic: Ambitions and Strategy

In 2014, Xi Jinping declared his intention to make China into a polar great power. Four years later, Beijing outlined its vision for Arctic development in a white paper on the Arctic, which declared China’s role as a near-Arctic state. As part of its global Belt and Road Initiative, China is stepping up its activity in the Arctic—setting up research stations, investing in mining and energy, and working with Russia to create a new sea route through the Arctic Ocean. Amid rising tensions between China and the West, the trajectory of China’s Arctic agenda will likely become ever more salient to the future of trade, sustainable development, and international security.   To discuss China’s role, ambitions, and strategy in the Arctic, Bonnie Glaser speaks with Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan, a leading polar geopolitics expert. Dr. Buchanan is Lecturer of Strategic Studies with Deakin University and the inaugural Co-Director of the Modern War Institute’s Polar Security Research Initiative. Her forthcoming book is titled, “Red Arctic: Russian Strategy Under Putin.”

Om Podcasten

China’s rise has captivated and vexed the international community. From defense, technology, and the environment, to trade, academia, and human rights, much of what Beijing does now reverberates across the map. China Global is a new podcast from the German Marshall Fund that decodes Beijing’s global ambitions as they unfold. Every other week, host Bonnie Glaser will be joined by a different international expert for an illuminating discussion on a different aspect of China’s foreign policy, the worldview that drives its actions, the tactics it’s using to achieve its goals—and what that means for the rest of the world.