The Arctic Vector of China’s Polar Policy

The article discusses the state regulation of Chinese activities in the Arctic carried out as a part of China’s Overall Polar Policy, and not as a separately implemented Arctic Policy of Beijing, as many people are accustomed to believe. This is due to a number of circumstances that arose during the formation of the foundations of Chinese scientific activity in the polar regions. The most important ones include the fact that it is regulated by the same regulatory framework and the same agencies, as well as being considered as one of the two-part basis of China’s international political selfpositioning based on the idea of “a strong polar power”. Since the early 2010s, China’s scientific activities in the polar regions have begun to be seen as part of China’s plans for naval construction through the 2050s and Beijing’s political course in the “four strategic new frontiers”. As part of the same planning period through the 2040s–2050s, China aims to be ready to begin activities in the central Arctic Ocean, if it is free of ice.

China’s Polar Policy, China’s Arctic Policy, China’s self-positioning, “a strong polar power”, “strategic new frontiers”, naval construction