China to Build its First Airport in Antarctica.

 

 China has announced it will begin building its first airport in Antarctica in November as a global scramble over the world’s polar regions intensifies.Chinese researchers have begun surveying work in preparation for the airport which will be capable of servicing China’s Snow Eagle 601, a small polar aircraft, according to the Keji Daily, a newspaper run by China’s ministry of science and technology.“As a major Antarctic scientific research country, China must ensure the logistical support capability of its own Antarctic activities. For this reason, the construction of the new airport is of great significance…and provides support to China’s airspace management in Antarctica,” wrote the Keji Daily. “In the future, [the airport] will provide guarantees for large-scale aircraft and an air fleet.” Various countries already operate tens of landing strips on Antarctica capable of handling small research craft, with the United States operating about a fifth of them.  However, increasing interest over territory and resources on the icy continent as well as valuable transport routes through the planet’s polar regions has spurred China to invest heavily in its own Antarctic infrastructure.“In less than 10 years, China has gone from being a minor player in the Arctic to becoming a major actor,” said Anne-Marie Brady, a professor of political science at the University of Canterbury and editor of The Polar Journal. “The polar regions, the deep seabed, and outer space are the new strategic territories where China will draw the resources to become a global power. A new global order is emerging and China aims to be at the heart of it.”  This January, China’s released a state white paper outlining ambitions to build a “polar silk road” of shipping corridors across the Arctic as climate change melts ice caps that once barred clear maritime routes across the top of the world.

FT.com