‘Games within games:’ China hints at withdrawing its Arctic claims

China is no longer describing itself as a “near-Arctic state” and might be redefining its northern policy against the backdrop of a warming U.S.-Russia relationship.

“The Chinese have stopped using that term [near-Arctic state] and I think we’ve seen a withdrawal or a significantly lower Chinese interest in the Arctic,” the South China Morning Post reported March 16.

The story was later picked up by various Russian state-controlled media outlets.

U.S. President Donald Trump has redefined his nation’s foreign policy since taking office Jan. 20, making it more aligned with Russia, the country’s traditional adversary.

With that, China’s push in the region has declined, reported South China Morning Post.

Beijing announced its Polar Silk Road strategy in 2018. It envisioned China’s deeper involvement in Arctic governance along with mineral and scientific exploration of the region.

Since then, China has proclaimed itself a “near-Arctic state” despite not having any territory in the polar areas.

“One could almost argue this is something similar to what the British did in their colonial period when they set up trading blocks and supported them by the British Navy,” said Rob Huebert, an Arctic sovereignty and security expert from the University of Calgary, in an interview with Nunatsiaq News.

China is one of the 13 countries with observer status at the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental organization that includes all eight Arctic nations: Canada, Unites States, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden.

Arctic affairs should be a concern of a “global village,” China’s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, said during his visit to Iqaluit in August.

At the time, he said China would like to continue to invest in Canadian Arctic, including the mining sector.

In 2020, Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Mining Co. expressed interest in buying the Hope Bay gold mine complex, near Cambridge Bay. The deal was rejected by the federal government later that year after a national security review of the transaction.

Huebert said there is not enough information to determine whether China has indeed started backtracking on its Arctic ambitions from a “rhetorical perspective” and whether that will spell out into real actions.

“They tend to be quiet,” he said, adding, however, that he does not see the country completely withdrawing from Arctic affairs.

Until there is more information, China downplaying its Arctic ambitions could be an attempt to aid U.S-Russia negotiations on the war in Ukraine, Huebert said.

“One possibility is that this is an attempt to create a positive form of news stories for the particular American president to be able to point and say, ‘Oh, see, my strategies are working,'” Huebert said.

“But these are games within games at the highest level, so it’s a little bit difficult to know with any certainty exactly what’s driving them.”