🇨🇳🧪🇦🇶 China’s fifth research station in Antarctica sparks concerns about its ambitions

The launch of Qinling station on Feb 7, however, has sparked concerns about China’s ambitions on the continent, which has no permanent inhabitants, unlike the Arctic.

The expansion seeks to position China as a major scientific player in Antarctica, in line with its emerging great-power status, said Professor Marc Lanteigne, who teaches political science at the University of Tromso: The Arctic University of Norway.

“At the same time, it (could) potentially lay the groundwork for increased economic activities should the legal situation in the region change in the coming decades,” Prof Lanteigne told The Straits Times.

Mining is currently banned in Antarctica under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, also known as the Madrid Protocol, which came into force in 1998. A concern is that China may press for a rethinking of the mining opportunities on the continent when this treaty is up for review in 2048, said Prof Lanteigne.

He noted that while China has research and economic interests on both poles, it faces less competition in Antarctica, given that the continent has no permanent inhabitants.

Assistant Professor Benjamin Ho said in the Arctic, countries such as Russia and the United States have staked claims, so China could see this as an opportunity to venture within Antarctica. “You can’t call yourself a global great power if you don’t have a presence around the globe,” said Prof Ho, who specialises in Chinese foreign policy at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

🔗 https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-s-fifth-research-station-in-antarctica-sparks-concerns-about-its-ambitions?s=09