The Economist.
At the end of last year, Chinese media was proudly broadcasting footage of the huge Xuelong 2.
Its patriotic red prow gliding through a stark white landscape.
Xuelong 2 is China's first domestically built polar icebreaker.
Officially commissioned in 2019, it marked a new era in China's polar exploration endeavors.
The Snow Dragon icebreaker had just completed China's biggest ever Arctic expedition,
involving a hundred scientists and the first crewed deep sea dive beneath the ocean's frozen surface.
Xuelong 2 not only fills China's gap in polar equipment,
but also advances Antarctic governance through international collaboration.
And just one month later, China was once again celebrating its Arctic achievements.
This time, a Chinese container vessel had completed its first scheduled voyage
on the Northern Sea Route without using icebreakers.
These are just some of the ways in which China has expanded its activities
in the polar north since 2018,
when it declared itself a near-Arctic state and outlined an ambitious plan
to play a major role in the region's security and governance.
But in recent weeks, China's Arctic activities have been under an international spotlight
following Donald Trump's threats to occupy Greenland
and his allegations about a Chinese military presence nearby.
That has forced China to change tack, downplaying its Arctic ambitions,