Alaska News

Chinese icebreaker to travel Northern Sea Route this summer

According to Norway's Barents Observer, China plans to send an icebreaker west through the Northern Sea Route along the northern coast of Siberia next summer.

The icebreaker Xue Long (Snow Dragon) will set sail from China in July, hoping to reach the Barents Sea before it returns home in September.

If the voyage is successful, it will be the first time a Chinese icebreaker has navigated the length of the Northern Sea Route and the first time one has sailed in the Barents.

The Xue Long has reportedly already traversed the Northwest Passage and has conducted Arctic research off the coasts of Canada and Alaska. Similarly, the Xue Long's Northern Sea Route voyage will feature oceanic, atmospheric, sea-ice and biological research.

Read more, here.

Details about the Xue Long's planned voyage come as Alaska lawmakers last week voiced and debated threats posed by an increasingly Arctic-oriented China and an apparent lack of concern by U.S. leaders about the country's obligations as an Arctic nation.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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