The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) heralded by China’s leaders includes plans to further develop shipping routes along the north of Russia, the so called blue economic passage that is part of the BRI. Also on board are proposals for increased polar tourism. Those plans definitely involve Qingdao Port, one of the world’s busiest ports.

Qingdao is seen as a hub for China’s Arctic pursuits as reported by Hong Kong based “Arctic Blogger” Mia Bennett in the article excerpted from Cryopolitics below. She references Qingdao’s “strong industrial connections to Northeast Asia and increasingly the Arctic” as well as the city’s economic strengths in shipbuilding and shipping as important Arctic – Qingdao symbiotics.

Not to be overlooked is polar tourism as the author interestingly connects Qingdao’s Polar Ocean World (located off Donghai Lu along the coast in Laoshan district, just down the road from the Ocean University of China) with China’s efforts to win friends and influence people around the world, specifically in areas near to the Arctic.

It’s an engaging read and well worth checking out. As Bennett points out, the issues surrounding the Polar Silk Road are likely to be discussed at the June 2018 SCO Summit that will be held in Qingdao. See below for more info.

Arctic Blogger Mia Bennett writes about the Polar Silk Road:

“In January, China released its first Arctic Policy. In the U.S., fearful headlines greeted the document, from The Wall Street Journal’s suspicion of whether a “new Cold War” was on the way to Foreign Policy’s proclamation that “China’s ready to cash in on a melting Arctic.” But beyond the headlines, what’s actually going on on the ground in China? What are the actual places driving China’s northern push, and what’s going on there?

To find out, earlier this week, I traveled to Qingdao, a city of nine million people located southeast of Beijing on the Yellow Sea. I was hosted by Peiqing Guo, an expert in Arctic international law and Chinese interests in the Arctic and professor at the Ocean University of China (OUC), one of the country’s leading institutes on the region. The university is especially strong in Arctic social sciences … ”

Read more at Cryopolitics.