Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration provides a grant for the Yellow River Station on Svalbard

Project narrative

In 2003, the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration (CAA) provided a grant to establish the Yellow River Station, an Arctic scientific research station, at Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard archipelago. The Arctic Yellow River Station was located Ny-Ålesund on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard. Its coordinates are 78°55′N and 11°56′E. The main building of the station was 576 square meters with conventional observation laboratories, dry/wet laboratories, aurora observation rooms, conference rooms, storage rooms and dormitories, which can accommodate 18 people living and working concurrently. In summer the mean temperature of the station is 4.3℃ and the maximum temperature is 19.6℃. In winter, the mean temperature is -10.8℃ and the minimum temperature is -35.1℃. The station supported scientific monitoring and research of marine ecology, terrestrial ecology, space physics, glacier mass-balance and motion, atmospheric physics and chemistry, and geographic information observation. The facility includes the world's largest space physics observatory. It was China's first Arctic scientific research station. To establish the station, CAA leased a building previously known as Ungkarsheimen from Norway's Royal Company. Royal Company installed cast pedestal to support the weight of two guardian lions (shishizi) sculptures that were placed at the entrance of the facility. The station was formally opened on July 28, 2004. In 2011, Chinese Minister of Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi made a visit to the station that was an unannounced to the Norwegian government. Since 2017, Chinese state-run Polar Research of China (PRIC) has operated the station. The Yellow River Station is manned through most of the year and logged 1,221 research days in 2019. On October 9, 2021, the Arctic Yellow River Station was listed in China's National Field Observation and Research Stations and was named as “the Arctic Yellow River Earth System National Observation and Research Station”. The presence of a Chinese government-run research station in Svalbard has caused national security concerns, with arguments that it would allow China to conduct dual-use research with intelligence or military applications in the Arctic and has otherwise increased Beijing's influence in the Arctic, as levied in the United States' National Strategy for the Arctic Region in October 2021, though Chinese state media accused the U.S. as Washington politicizing the PRC's activities to better control the region. China calls its activities in the Arctic peaceful, for the global common good and for sustainable development in the Arctic. Still, in May 2024, the Norwegian Government published a paper about its sovereignty in Norway and highlighted dual-use rich of a risk, although without naming any country; foreign military activity in Svalbard is prohibited. Specific controversies including the involvement of the China Research Institute of Radio Wave Propagation (CRIRP), which as of July 2024 had two active projects in space physics running until 2030. CRIRP is part of state-owned military electronic company China Electronics and Technology Group Corporation (CETC); CRIRIP was established in 1963 for military needs and helped develop over-the-horizon radar for China and today strengthening the military has been among its prime goals. At the Yellow River Station, CRIRP officially conducts atmospheric and ionospheric observation of space weather, the Northern Lights, and electrons, which are also important for target detection, tracking, and identification, with remote research done via equipment at the station analyzed by teams in China, making it hard to ascertain the specific end-users. Analysts believe that CRIRP conducts legitimate environmental and atmosphere research not benefiting the People's Liberation Army (PLA), but that the dual-use possibility still exists. China has previously chafed at research restrictions in the archipelago, where its presence was formalized by a treaty in pre-Communist days in the 1920s. It has called for "freedom of scientific investigation" and "internationalization." Norway says only natural sciences may be studied, with an emphasis on climate, and some cultural heritage research. General concerns about Norwegian sovereignty have dovetailed with Chinese presence. When the Chinese managers were allowed to comment on Norway's draft research strategy for Ny-Ålesund, the Chinese requested an international decision-making process for Ny-Ålesund and Spitsbergen as a whole, and would not accept the Yellow River station referred to as part of a "Ny-Ålesund Research Station"; it requested further autonomy from the Norwegian government and argued that each country should decide its activities in Svalbard without its interference, with research coordination to go through the Ny-Ålesund Science Managers Committee (NySMAC) instead. This position was seen as testing Norway's absolute sovereign and jurisdiction of Svalbard under the Treaty of Spitsbergen (often known as the Treaty of Svalbard) {see pg.422 of ID#204860}}.