By Didi Kirsten Tatlow
Senior Correspondent, International Affairs
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The United States has strong concerns about China's activities in the Arctic, including scientific research that could help to strengthen its military, the U.S. State Department has told Congress in a letter that followed a Newsweek investigation.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers had called on the government to do more to address China's presence in the Arctic in October in response to the Newsweek reporting that showed evidence of potential dual-use research that can have both military and civilian applications.
The Arctic has moved further up the agenda in Washington ahead of the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump, who has highlighted its strategic importance and spoken of purchasing Greenland to better secure U.S. interests in the region despite Denmark's rejection of the idea.
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The letter from the senior State Department official to Congress dated Dec. 19 and seen by Newsweek said America's diplomats are seeking to counter the ambitions of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the Arctic.
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Diplomats have "strong concerns about PRC behavior in the Arctic, to include the PRC's scientific research in the region—research that could be used for future military operations," Naz Durakoğlu wrote to a bipartisan congressional committee that scrutinizes the activities of the Communist Party of China (CCP).
There was "increasing frequency and complexity of PRC activity in the region," creating defense and security challenges for the U.S. as China made increased efforts to garner influence, Durakoğlu, an Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, wrote.
"In general, the Department's work with Allies on Arctic security centers around the expansion of our information and intelligence sharing," she wrote.
Contacted for comment, the State Department said via email: "As a general matter, we do not comment on congressional correspondence."
Potential Chinese Military Research
In July, a Newsweek investigation presented evidence of research by Chinese scientists in Norway, Iceland and beyond that experts said could help the People's Liberation Army's missile tracking and targeting via data gathered in the Earth's upper atmosphere and sophisticated LIDAR technology, and finesse its military radars to detect "over-the-horizon" aircraft, among other things.
Newsweek established that a Chinese research institute was operating in the Arctic under a civilian alias that obscured its role as part of a major Chinese defense conglomerate, and that a Norwegian satellite ground station on the Svalbard Archipelago was serving at least one Chinese company that is a defense contractor.
The research institute, the China Research Institute of Radio Wave Propagation (CRIRP)—which belongs to China Electronics and Technology Group Corporation and is known in China as CETC-22—was active on Norway's Svalbard as well as on the mainland of Norway and was involved in sensitive research with more than a dozen units of China's army. China has said that its scientific research has only peaceful applications.
Durakoğlu said American diplomats were countering China's growing presence by engaging more deeply with Arctic allies: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Canada, pointing to multiple recent visits and engagements across the region by officials including the Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and the recently-appointed Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs, Mike Sfraga.
"The Department also engages on these issues multilaterally, including, as appropriate, through NATO. As noted in the July 10, 2024 Washington Summit Declaration, the historic accessions to NATO by Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024) have made these countries safer and the NATO Alliance stronger, including in the Arctic," Durakoğlu wrote.
"With regard to the specific challenges posed by the PRC's growing ambitions in the region – to include dual-use research the PRC may be conducting or seeks to conduct in the Arctic – the Department is also working with Arctic Allies and partners to develop and implement robust investment screening regimes and research security practices."
Over the past year, "our embassies in the Nordic region have raised awareness of the PRC's actions and facilitated regional collaboration to counter emerging threats. Government of Iceland officials formally requested access to data from the China-Iceland Arctic Observatory and will accept U.S. government assistance to develop a security review or screening process for responsible international research collaboration," Durakoğlu wrote.
Dialogue with Greenland
The letter did not address Trump's announced intention of buying Greenland, an offer that has been strongly rejected by Denmark, which owns the autonomous territory that is about one quarter the size of the U.S. "Embassy Copenhagen and Consulate Nuuk have maintained a robust dialogue with the government of Greenland as it drafts investment screening legislation," the State Department letter said.
Newsweek's investigation also prompted a fact-finding trip to Norway and Iceland in October by a bipartisan delegation of committee staffers, who met with defense, foreign affairs and intelligence officials, as well as researchers and academics in Oslo, Tromsø and Reykjavik. The State Department said it had facilitated the trip and was working to improve research security practices in Arctic Allied states.
Marc Lanteigne, a professor of political science at The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, said the U.S. had operated an "erratic" Arctic policy for some years and had long overlooked the risks of dual-use research.
"I think the U.S. government as a whole has been a bit late in understanding the dual-use aspect of research," he said in a telephone interview.
The State Department offered to discuss the issue with the committee further, including "in a classified setting." Newsweek has reached out to the Committee for comment.
Update 1/8/25, 11:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a response from the U.S. State Department.
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