Professor Torbjørn Pedersen: The Politics of Research Presence in Svalbard

In its 2018 Arctic policy, Beijing asserted that the Svalbard Treaty gives thecontracting parties to the Svalbard Treaty (the treaty says their nationals) a set ofliberties in the archipelago. In the same document, the Chinese government expresses growing ambitions in the wider region and maintains it will seek to«participate in the governance of the Arctic». General Secretary Xi Jinping has described China as an emerging «polar great power», and China’s People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) is one of the main planners of China’s polar science programme. 

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