Li Xing is Professor & Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen is Assistant Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark.
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The Drivers of Chinese Arctic Interests:
Political Stability and Energy and Transportation
Security
Li Xing & Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen
China‘s interest in the Arctic is not usually discussed thoroughly in its context of the core interests of the Chinese Communist
Party: political stability, territorial integrity and economic growth. This article discusses the role of the Arctic in light of the crucial
importance of energy and transportation security for continued political stability and economic growth in China. China has a
global view of pursuing this security sourcing energy globally and developing its navy to ensure strategic capabilities to protect sea-
lanes against state and non-state challenges. Political stability in China is believed by the Communist Party to rest on continued
economic growth. China is deeply dependent on energy imports and expected to become more dependent in the future. For its
energy, China is dependent on the Persian Gulf plagued by instability and militarily dominated by the USA. Equally the
Chinese economy is dependent on exports, which makes China dependent on secure and preferably short sea-lanes to major
markets. The strategic competitor, the USA, controls the sea lanes and choke points as the Strait of Malacca; in the Gulf of
Aden, piracy is a threat; while the Suez and Panama Canals are bottlenecks. Arctic energy and the Northern Sea Route offer
some opportunities for diversification of sources and supply lines.
China has a population of 1.3 billion people and an economy that has been growing at an average of
10% per year for three decades since the 1980s. In order to maintain the current economic growth
rate, China has to make access to adequate energy supplies a national priority, and to a great extent a
national
security
priority. China‘s energy consumption has grown by leaps and bounds, and by 2006, it
could be stated that China was ―the world‘s second largest consumer and third largest producer of
primary energy. From 2000 to 2005, China‘s energy consumption rose by 60 percent, accounting for