|Analysts called on China to strengthen its presence in the Arctic Monday, amid an escalating land grab between countries near the North Pole over natural resources and trade routes.
"As one of the largest energy consumers and traders, China has to improve its status in the Arctic and actively seek cooperation opportunities with countries in the region," Zhang Xia, director of Strategic Studies with the Polar Research Institute of China, told the Global Times.
"Unfortunately, compared with countries near the North Pole, China is now lagging far behind in terms of Arctic exploration and scientific research," Zhang said.
The remarks came after a Sunday report by CNN that covered recent US naval exercises in the Arctic involving two nuclear-powered submarines.
The US is a member of the Arctic Council, along with Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden, which all stake claims to portions of the Arctic. The council was set up to mediate disputes in this regard.
According to a 2008 US Geological Survey study, the Arctic Circle holds an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered but reachable oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of reachable natural gas.
These resources account for about 22 percent of the undiscovered yet technically recoverable resources in the world.
Back in 2009, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that within 30 years, the areas of the Arctic covered in sea ice in summers would shrink by about two-thirds, threatening wildlife but opening up resources exploration and new trade routes.
Although the ice is melting, competition to claim territories in the Arctic is heating up.
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea grants coastal nations an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extending 320 km beyond their land territory. However, given the undefined, changing and overlapping territory of the Arctic, this convention becomes an imperfect guide over who owns what, CNN reported.
In 2007, Russia planted a flag on the ocean floor under the North Pole to reinforce its claim. Moscow then decided to create Arctic brigades, potentially involving more than a thousand troops to defend its interests in the region.
Canada and the US, strategic allies in NATO, are in a dispute over the Northwest Passage, a sea route in Arctic that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The two sides also make conflicting claims over the energy-rich Beaufort Sea, a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, north of Canada's Northwest Territories.
Another example is the Lomonosov Ridge, jointly claimed by Canada, Denmark and Russia.
Zhang noted that the Arctic, under the current international law, does not belong to any country, but ambitious expansion by nearby countries has carved up the ungoverned but free part of the world.
"In fact, 80 percent of those natural resources are within the EEZ of Canada, Denmark, Norway Russia and the US, but they are still trying to extend their continental shelves, which of course results in overlapping interests and more disputes," Zhang said.
China has to speak out in the international community, showing its ability and resolution to stand up for its interests to both resources and navigation in the Arctic, he added.
Li Zhenfu, an expert with the Arctic Maritime Research Center at Dalian Maritime University, told the Oriental Outlook that since the Arctic is still technically a free part of the world, China could improve its research activities there and seek future cooperation opportunities.
In January, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told Reuters that Oslo favored granting China an observer role at meetings of the Arctic Council, but Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said in July that only countries that acknowledge the sovereignty of council members in the Arctic can become observers.
According to the Guardian, the Northern Sea Route, a shipping lane along Siberia that links Europe and East Asia, is only one-third of the distance of more traditional routes through the Suez Canal.
Russia's Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer, broke new ground in 2010 by carrying ore to China and South Korea by the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route, the newspaper reported.
