China’s fifth research station in Antarctica sparks concerns about its ambitions : worldnews

[-] brain_in_a_box@lemmy.ml 69 points 8 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

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[-] rando895@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 8 months ago

How sneaky of them trying to exist. They should make their ambitions more clear like 'Merica does with their desire to dominate the world as the de facto international police force.

[-] filoria@lemmy.ml 60 points 8 months ago

The absolute horror of research in Antarctica. Clearly a sign of colonial intent.

[-] Nakoichi@hexbear.net 21 points 8 months ago

The absolute horror of research in Antarctica.

Yeah but have you even watched The Thing?

[-] metaStatic@kbin.social 3 points 8 months ago

No but I watched this documentary called the X files

[-] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago

I try to stay away from conspiracies so I haven't gone down the rabbit hole too much, but there have been some weird things going on in Antarctica the last few years. Lots of visits from a ton of different heads of state for no officially stated reasons, civilian ships being turned away from certain areas, numerous reports of military aircraft flying around.

Like I said, I try not to dig into conspiracies too much, but this one sticks out to me. Maybe it's just because it reminds me of the pre-2016 days when conspiracy theories were fun to think about because they involved stuff like aliens and bigfoot. Now, every conspiracy is just some nonsense political BS that's clearly trying to push a message.

[-] appel@whiskers.bim.boats 12 points 8 months ago

They found the stargate

[-] ComradePorkRoll@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Modern day conspiracies are so shit because they're all like 2 degrees removed from some antisemetic bullshit. The flat earth conspiracy has been hijacked by neonazis for fucks same.

[-] Thrillhouse@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

It is just common sense. Nations never do things for just one reason. Possession is 9/10ths of the law - if they fill Antarctica with their facilities they can later claim they have so many facilities they should just govern Antarctica. Not a bad strategic move in times of global warming.

[-] aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social 31 points 8 months ago

There are dozens of research stations. Argentina has 14. The US also has 5 research stations and makes up one quarter of the summer population (China makes up 4%). Don't see any articles hand-wringing about US ambitions in the region, for some reason.

[-] set_secret@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Australia has already claimed 42% of the continent fwiw. yes when climate change makes the rest of the world unliveable Aus 2.0 is waiting just down the road.

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[-] Nobody@lemmy.world 28 points 8 months ago

China is threatening the West's strategic penguin reserves. This cannot be allowed to stand.

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 17 points 8 months ago

Mr. President, we must not allow a penguin gap!

[-] aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social 27 points 8 months ago

Ok does it spark concerns or do China's enemies spark concerns about it?

[-] CascadeOfLight@hexbear.net 18 points 8 months ago

It's concerning because they're approaching a certain mountain range of unusual height and blasphemous age, dotted here and there with strange Cyclopean stone blocks and cave mouths of unusual regularity... at all costs, they must not investigate those mountains of madness!

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 16 points 8 months ago

😂

[-] carl_marks_1312@lemmy.ml 9 points 8 months ago

“I wouldn’t read too much into it until they have a more permanent and sustainable presence in the region… It’s more symbolic than anything. At the moment, it does not represent any strategic pivot beyond the regions China wants to go,” he added.

...

Said Prof Ho: “While it is certainly possible for the Chinese to use these bases for strategic geopolitical purposes, I would not think the Antarctic is top of their list, given they have other domestic priorities like their economy to think about.”

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But the White Paper does not constitute an official Antarctic policy and there is no telling when such a policy, serving as a guide for China’s actions, may be put out, said Associate Professor Liu Nengye at Singapore Management University’s Yong Pung How School of Law.

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Since 2013, Beijing has proposed to establish an Antarctic Specially Managed Area around Kunlun station, which would allow China to maintain more stringent environmental protection of the surrounding space of potentially thousands of square kilometres. Such proposals have to be approved by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties, which consists of 29 countries including Russia, the United Kingdom, the US and China.

While the Madrid Protocol permits such an area, the proposal received pushback from other governments, including the US, which questioned China’s motives.

There are currently seven such areas, of which two are managed by the US, one by Australia and the remaining four jointly managed by countries including Brazil, Poland, Chile and India.

World News

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