Beijing has announced the construction of a fifth base, equaling those of the United States issue

While there is widespread international monitoring of the positions taken by the great powers in the Arctic, given that global warming opens up trade routes and possibilities for resource exploitation, geopolitical movements around Antarctica go more unnoticed. With any national claims frozen by the existing agreements on the South Pole continent, the steps taken by the superpowers are minor, but also significant. As in the Arctic, China is a new player, and is increasing its stakes.

▲ Shared camp for scientific research in Antarctica [Pixabay].

May 8, 2020

article / Jesús Rizo

Antarctica is the southernmost continent and at the same time the most extreme due to its geographical and thermal conditions, which seriously limit its habitability. Human presence is almost impossible in the so-called East Antarctica, located two thousand meters above sea level, which constitutes more than two thirds of the continent, being, therefore, the highest average altitude. Moreover, since Antarctica is not an ocean, as is the case with the Arctic, it is not affected, except in its continental perimeter, by the increase in sea temperature due to climate change.

In addition to these difficulties for human presence, there are the limitations imposed by international regulations, which have imposed a moratorium on any claim of sovereignty or commercial exploitation, something that does not happen in the Arctic. Action in Antarctica is strongly determined by the Antarctic Treaty (Washington, 1959) which, in Articles I and IX, reservation the continent for scientific research and peaceful activities. In addition, it prohibits nuclear explosions and the disposal of radioactive wastearticle V), and all non-peaceful measures of a military naturearticle I).

This treaty is complemented and developed by three other documents: the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR, Canberra, 1980), the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (CCFA, London, 1988) and the protocol to the Antarctic Treaty on Environmental Protection ( Madrid, 1991), which prohibits "any activity related to mineral resources, except for scientific research " until 2048. In the final, the so-called Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) "shields" the Antarctic region from the exploitation of its resources and the increase of international tensions, since, in addition to the above, it freezes territorial claims for as long as it is in force. However, this does not prevent global powers from also seeking a foothold in Antarctica.

The most recent action corresponds to the People's Republic of China, which aspires to play a major role in the area, as is the case in the Arctic. Already with four scientific instructions on the southern continent (the Antarctic instructions Great Wall, Zhongshan, Kunlun and Taishan, the first two permanent and the last two functional in summer), last November it announced the construction of its fifth base (thus equaling the United States in terms of issue ). The new facility, in the Ross Sea, would be operational in 2022.

In relation to these scientific stations, since Xi Jinping came to power in 2013, China is seeking to create a Specially Managed Antarctic Zone for the protection of the environment around the Kunlun base, something resisted by its regional neighbors, since it would give Beijing dominion over the activities carried out there. This is the most important Chinese base, essential for its programs of study in astronomical subject and, therefore, for the development of BeiDou, the Chinese satellite navigation system, fundamental for the expansion and modernization of its armed forces and which rivals the GPS (United States), Galileo (EU) and GLONASS (Russia) systems. In this regard, and in view of the military implications of Antarctica, the Treaty established the possibility for any country to carry out inspections of any of the instructions present there, as a way of ensuring compliance with the provisions of the agreement article VII). However, the danger and cost of these inspections have been considerably reduced, not to mention that the Kunlun base is located in one of the most climatically hostile regions of the continent.

On the other hand, China currently has two icebreakers, the Xue Long I and Xue Long II, the latter built entirely on Chinese territory with the Finnish Aker Arctic's attendance . Experts believe that, following the construction of this vessel, the People's Republic could be close to building nuclear-powered icebreakers, something currently only undertaken by Russia and which would have global consequences.

But the importance of Antarctica for China is not only reflected in the technical and technological advances it is making, but also in its bilateral relations with countries close to the southern continent such as Chile and Brazil, the former with original consultative status and with a territorial claim in the ATS; the latter with consultative status only. Last September, the Andean country held the first meeting of the Jointcommittee on Antarctic Cooperation with the People's Republic, in which, among other matters, the use of the port of Punta Arenas by China as a base for the supply of staff and materials to its Antarctic facilities was discussed, conversations that will require further deepening. As for Brazil, the Chinese business CEIEC (China National Electronics Import & Export Corporation) financed in January a new Brazilian Antarctic base for US$ 100 million.

Approximate location of the main Antarctic instructions . In blue, the U.S. instructions , in red, those of Russia, and in yellow, those of China.

Finally, it is worth analyzing the American and Russian influence in the Antarctic, although China is expected to be the most important player in the region, at least until the Madrid protocol is opened for review in 2048. The United States has three permanent instructions (the McMurdo, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and Palmer instructions ) and only two summer instructions (the Copacabana and Cape Shirreff instructions ), so the construction of the new Chinese base will equal the total issue of U.S. instructions .

For its part, Russia, the dominant power in the Arctic, is also the dominant power in its southern counterpart, at least in terms of the issue of instructions, since it has six, four of which operate annually (Mirni, Novolazarevskaya, Progrés and Vostok) and the other two only in the summer (Bellingshausen and Molodiózhnaya). However, it should be noted that Russia has not opened any Antarctic base since the collapse of the USSR, the most recent being Progrés (1988), although it is true that it has tried, for example, to reopen the Soviet base Russkaya, without success. The United States also established most of its Antarctic instructions in the middle of the Cold War, in the 1950s and 1960s, except for the two summer ones (Copacabana in 1985 and Cape Shirreff in 1991).

China, on the other hand, opened the Great Wall base in 1985, the Zhongshan base in 1989, the Kunlun base in 2009 and the Taishan base in 2014 and, as mentioned above, has a new one pending for 2022.

In addition to the countries mentioned above, another twenty countries have research instructions in Antarctica, among them Spain, which has consultative status in the Antarctic Treaty. Spain has two summer instructions in the South Shetland Islands, the Juan Carlos I base (1988) and the Gabriel de Castilla base (1998). It also has a temporary scientific camp located on the Byers Peninsula of Livingston Island.