Does China’s fishing activity in Antarctica hide a ‘deeper agenda’?

Does China’s fishing activity in Antarctica hide a ‘deeper agenda’?

Xi Jinping, president of the People's Republic of China, marks off Southern Ocean in Antarctica for fifth research facility.

In the fall of 2014, the president of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping visited the new location of the fifth Chinese station in the Antarctic. The first was established in 1985.

Recently, China and Australia signed a new pact for the re-fueling of ships and planes en route to Antarctica and other supplies for Chinese scientific exploration. When Xi Jinping visited last year, he placed a marker at the site and explained to the reporters present that China will expand their operations in the southernmost continent.

Because of financial constraints in the United States and Australia, research has been limited in the Antarctic region for these two countries. Even so, there are slight tremors of concern over the what the leaders of China actually want.

According to Liu Shenli, chairman of the China National Agricultural Development Group, stated, “We will increase our investment in the Antarctic area in terms of krill fishing. Krill provides very good quality protein that can be processed into food and medicine. The Antarctic is a treasure house for all human beings, and China should go there and share[.]”

Antarctica supports 10,000 species including many krill varieties.  However, there are some other ideas to be considered since some people in Canberra, Australia feel slightly uncomfortable with the leadership of China.

Former Australian official with Australian Department of Defense and executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Peter Jennings said “We should have no illusions about the deeper agenda — one that has not even been agreed to by Chinese scientists but is driven by Xi, and most likely his successors … This is part of a broader pattern of a mercantilist approach all around the world. A big driver of Chinese policy is to secure long-term energy supply and food supply[.]”

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