Pentagon: China Remains 'Long-Term' Challenge, Keeping A 'Watchful Eye' On China-Russia Cooperation

3 months ago

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Arctic and Global Resilience Iris Ferguson was asked about China's role as a principal adversary in the Department of Defense's newest arctic strategy.

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Transcript

00:00Q Just a follow-up from what Lita asked earlier, how would you define China's sort of progress

00:05in the Arctic?

00:06Is it a consistent trajectory?

00:07Is it rapid progress?

00:10And in terms of long-term competitor in the Arctic, is that still Russia, or would you

00:14now see China rising above them in the long term?

00:17MS.

00:18STERN Yeah.

00:19I think for China, you know, we see them having a strategic interest in the Arctic.

00:22We see that being something that they've said over the last decade.

00:27They, in their strategic documents, continue to have the Arctic as an area where they want

00:33to explore, where they – we see them as trying to internationalize the Arctic region,

00:37to kind of turn it into a bit of a global common so that they can have access and governance

00:41there.

00:42The Arctic is primarily governed by the jurisdiction of sovereign states, but I think China has

00:46interest in trying to influence it meaningfully.

00:49We've – you know, they have three icebreakers.

00:51We know that they are often operating under the guise of scientific research, but that

00:56much of that research is going towards military use.

00:59We see them operating more regularly in the last several years from a military perspective.

01:05Even just a couple of weeks ago, there were several Chinese warships off of the coast

01:09of Alaska.

01:10For us, we've seen them operating closely with the Russians on occasion, with combined

01:16exercises off the coast of Alaska.

01:18We're keeping a watchful eye on their – on how they're developing their capacity

01:24for operating in the region.

01:26And I think, you know, as we say in the department, they are our long-term pacing challenge, and

01:32I think that that includes in the Arctic.

Pentagon: China Remains 'Long-Term' Challenge, Keeping A 'Watchful Eye' On China-Russia Cooperation

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