China has been active in Antarctic exploration and scientific
research since 1984, but only recently signaled its intent to
become a hands-on player in Arctic affairs. As Beijing
implements an unusually ambitious shift toward the poles, its
goals and motivations are drawing scrutiny. Antarctica’s
pristine environment is currently protected by the Madrid
Protocol, a 1991 pact negotiated by then-Australian Prime
Minister Bob Hawke and his French counterpart. The pioneering
international agreement bans the exploitation of the southern
polar region’s natural resources including coal, metals, and oil
fields potentially as large as Saudi Arabia’s. Marking the
protocol’s 20th anniversary, former prime minister Hawke says he
hopes its terms will be upheld beyond the agreement’s
expiration, in 2048. “It’s very important, fundamentally because
Antarctica remains the only environment left in the world where
scientific research can go on unimpeded by any form of
pollution," said Hawke. But, in this era of energy insecuri