Arctic Yearbook 2012
Alexeeva and Lasserre
88
Notes
1.
In April 2009, Japan applied for the observer status with the Arctic Council, a high-level
circumpolar intergovernmental forum that discusses and addresses Arctic related issues, and
expressed a very keen interest in environmental programs, and transportation or passage
through the Arctic area, and development of resources in the Arctic Circle, cf. Weese, B.
(2010, September 3). Japan latest non-Arctic country to claim stake in North Pole.
Toronto Sun.
Retrieved
26
April
2012
from
www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/09/03/15241971.html.
2.
Quoting Borgerson, S., p. 64: “even China operates one icebreaker, despite its lack of Arctic
waters”. This oddity, or so are we invited to think, is a hint that China might nurture
malevolent intentions. However, many other countries with no Arctic or Antarctic waters
deploy one or more icebreakers or ice-capable research ships: Australia, France, Germany,
Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden… The web abounds with sites displaying the
common-sense-based idea that “China” (probably meaning the Chinese government) must be
interested in Arctic routes since they will be shorter ways to reach European markets”.
3.
Wanfang Data
is China’s first database, created in the 1950s by the Institute of Scientific &
Technological Information of China (ISTIC). It originally served the purpose of digitalizing
information about companies and their products. It was later transformed into a vast electronic
database of multidisciplinary information, and provides access to many collections of
periodicals, thesis’, and other types of archives. See www.wanfangdata.com.cn (retrieved on
8.9.12).
4.
For more information on China’s Antarctic activities and strategies, see Brady, A.-M. (2010),
China’s Rise in Antarctica?,
Asian Survey
. 50(4), 759-785; Zou, K. (1993). China's Antarctic
policy and the Antarctic Treaty system,
Ocean Development & International Law
. 24(3), 237-255.
5.
Some mass-media publications are even suggesting that China could use its Antarctic bases “to
improve satellite communications to military forces that increasingly depend on space-based
infrastructure” and that the Antarctic has therefore an important military significance, cf.
Nature
(2012, January 18). Antarctic Treaty is cold comfort. Retrieved 9.22.12, from
www.nature.com/nature/journal/v481 /n7381/full/481237a.html.
6.
China’s own extensive claims in the South China Sea are founded on this same concept.
7.
For more information, see Alexeeva O., Lasserre F. (2012). The Snow Dragon: China’s
Strategies in the Arctic.
China perspectives
, 3, 31-38.
8.
As Russia did when it considered granting Iceland a €4 billion loan in October 2008, a loan
later reduced to $500 million and finally rejected by Moscow in October 2009 when it became
apparent Iceland had struck a deal with Scandinavian countries and the IMF. In January 2012,
China pledged to support Iceland's financial stability and economic growth.
China’s Government
Official Portal
(2012, January 17). Retrieved (4.18.12) from, http://english.gov.cn/2012-
01/17/content_2046830.htm.
9.
China already produces about 90% of rare earth metals.
10.
Though this plan never came to be realized, certain journalists have presented it as a Chinese
government attempt to “build a strategic stronghold” in the Arctic, cf.
Zhang, Y. Ren, Q.
(2012). China defends Arctic research,
op.cit
.