China's Arctic Ambitions

Chinese President Hu Jintao concluded a three-day visit to Copenhagen on June 17, the first official visit to Denmark by a Chinese head of state. While the meeting between Hu and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was expected to cover a wide range of economic and trade topics, the most geopolitically significant issue was China's interest in Greenland, the largest autonomous territory in the Danish Realm. Hu's visit to Denmark comes less than a month after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao traveled to Iceland, where the topic of China's relationship to the Arctic region was also discussed.

China, which does not have direct access to the polar circle, is heavily dependent on mineral resources and transoceanic trade to continue its fast-paced economic development — the heart of its political and social strategies. Hu's and Wen's visits highlight China's growing (but not new) interest in the Arctic region as an untapped source of raw mineral resources and for its faster shipping lanes to Eastern U.S. and European markets, both of which are becoming increasingly accessible to China as global warming leads to a recession of the perennial ice cover over land and sea.

Because China is unable to project strategic power to the Arctic region, it will have to build its influence through diplomatic cooperation with polar nations and above all through large-scale investments in the region. Northern European countries are by far the most likely to attract such investments due to their currently fragile economic situation and lesser strategic concern for the Arctic. But challenges to China's business model and strategic influence will remain and will have to be countered with careful diplomacy from Beijing.