As global warming increases, China is increasingly looking to the Arctic. Other countries have reason to be wary.

While much attention has focused on Chinese efforts to make economic in-roads on land, observers may have missed the country’s expansion to the north, along the Polar Silk Road.

For China the Arctic represents a largely blank geoeconomic canvas outside of the United States’ sphere of influence in which it can lay the foundation today for significant economic and geopolitical rewards in the future.

The release of China’s Arctic White Paper in late January brought broad attention to China’s somewhat nascent but rapidly expanding role and interests in the Arctic region. Even though most of the information in the White Paper is not new, initiatives such as the Polar Silk Road could indicate a coming surge in China’s political and economic endeavors in the Arctic.

China’s involvement in Arctic affairs can bring the region new impetus and new opportunities for development.

Greenland believes its ticket to prosperity is the wealth of minerals and rare earths below its slopes. Jonas Parello-Plesner discusses the potential for China’s investment to turn Greenland into a successful resource economy.