The Arctic: China's New Domain

... goals, along with Africa. The region can potentially provide China’s growing economy with more minerals and open new shipping lanes through Arctic waters. From the point of view of international law the Arctic has a special legal status: it is a polar region to the north of the Arctic Circle. Geographically parts of Canada, Russia, Denmark (Greenland), Norway, the United States, Sweden, Finland and Iceland lie in the Arctic, although Finland and Sweden do not have an Arctic coast. Offshore territories of these states are limited to 12 nautical miles of territorial ...