Climate Change and China as a Global Emerging Regulatory Sea Power in the Arctic Ocean:Is China a Threat for Arctic Security?

The impact of climate change in the Arctic Ocean such as ice melting and ice retreat facilitatesnatural resources extraction. Arctic fossil fuel becomes the drivers of geopolitical changes in theArctic Ocean. Climate change facilitates natural resource extractions and increases competitionbetween states and can result in tensions, even military ones. This article investigates through apolitical and legal analysis the role of China as an emerging regulatory sea power in the ArcticOcean given its assertive “energy hungry country behaviour” in the Arctic Ocean. The United NationsConvention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Arctic Council (AC) are taken into considerationunder climate change effects, to assess how global legal frameworks and institutionscan deal with China’s strategy in the Arctic Ocean. China’s is moving away from its role as “humblepower” to one of “informal imperialistic” resulting in substantial impact on the Arctic and Antarticdynamism. Due to ice-melting, an easy access to natural resources, China’s Arctic strategy in theArctic Ocean has reinforced its military martitime strategy and has profoundly changed its maritimemilitary doctrine shifting from regional to global in the context of UNCLOS. In particular, it iswondered, what China understands about the public order dimension of UNCLOS. The article concludesthat despite China’ assertive behaviour towards the Arctic environmental ocean and its rise as global sea power, for the time being, China cannot be considered as a variable for Arctic securityas there are no sufficient legal and policy objective elements to adduct that it constitutes athreat to Artic ocean security.