Chinese people Laying Out the “Near-Arctic State” Strategy HoonTing 20260120

Chinese People Laying Out the “Near-Arctic State” Strategy    HoonTing 20260120

At the very start of Donald Trump’s second term, he publicly stated his desire to incorporate Canada into the United States as the 51st state, arguing that Canada had long taken advantage of trade with the U.S. and that becoming a U.S. state would eliminate tariffs entirely. Shortly thereafter, he also threatened to purchase Greenland—this time emphasizing that national security had already been infiltrated by China.

In a discussion with an online acquaintance living in Canada, the other party raised a key observation: “In many remote glacial regions within the Canadian Arctic Circle, the most concentrated population groups are actually Mandarin-speaking labor migrants from China. After completing five-year work contracts, they are able to obtain local permanent residency. These areas are also quite close to Greenland. Therefore, Trump’s concern that Beijing covets Greenland is not groundless, but based on concrete realities.” This observation is indeed significant. Take travel programs as an example: Yellowknife, a town within the Canadian Arctic Circle, was once sparsely populated and little known. However, Chinese nationals traveled long distances to settle there permanently and actively developed aurora tourism, turning it into a well-known destination today. This clearly corroborates the claim that there is a notable Chinese presence within the Arctic Circle.

Moreover, since the 2010s, Chinese investors have been purchasing large tracts of land in Iceland and Greenland. Why would these icy, snowbound regions—seemingly of limited economic value—be particularly attractive to Chinese interests? China itself is already a major rare-earth producer, so this Arctic land acquisition is clearly not driven purely by mineral resources, but rather by strategic considerations. Some of the purchased properties even include small airports.

Going further back, reports have indicated that there are now several million Chinese migrants living in Siberia. On the one hand, such large-scale migration could be interpreted as an attempt to “reclaim” territories lost historically through treaties such as the Treaty of Aigun. However, considering that Jiang Zemin later signed additional agreements confirming the existing borders, the only reasonable interpretation is that the Chinese government is gradually pushing northward toward the Arctic Circle through population expansion. In recent years, a series of seemingly unrelated yet highly consistent developments in the Arctic have emerged, forming critical clues.

Beijing has indeed been highly proactive in Arctic affairs, participating in virtually every relevant initiative and even seeking ways to join related international organizations. In 2018, China released China’s Arctic Policy—commonly known as the “Arctic White Paper”—in eight languages, for the first time describing itself as a “near-Arctic state.” It emphasized that, within the framework of “building a community with a shared future for mankind,” China aims to be an active participant, builder, and contributor to Arctic affairs. Traditionally, “Arctic states” refers to the eight countries that possess sovereign territory within the Arctic Circle. By inventing the term “near-Arctic state,” China is in effect challenging the international community, leveraging the already significant number of Chinese residents within the Arctic Circle and the considerable amount of privately held land. Under the framework of China’s national security laws, these individuals can at any time become the vanguard of Chinese military activities and intelligence gathering.

From this perspective, one can truly understand the deeper concerns of the Trump administration, as well as the relative complacency and permissiveness of countries such as Canada, NATO members, and even Russia on matters of national security.