Paper review for "Jointly Building the “Polar Silk Road”: An Analysis on the Causes of China’s Decision- Making Changes" by Zhu Yan?Wang Shuchun?Fei Junhui
The main problem of the article is that given the significance of the development of the Arctic to China, why did China not mention the Arctic Ocean in the official document issued in 2015, but the official document two years later gave this The route is of great significance, making it comparable to the other two maritime channels and becoming an important direction of the Belt and Road Initiative. The main analysis methods are quantitative analysis and comparative analysis, applying which compared differences in time, freight and risk between the Arctic and traditional routes, so that in conclusion the development of the Arctic waterway can bring greater economic value to both parties. The article refers to a large number of documents, in total 33 articles, including 13 Chinese documents and 20 Russian documents, mainly journals and online sources, which are closely related to the research topic of this article. Among them, 25 references have been cited after 2016, which brought more significance to research.
The reason why China did not participate in the construction of the Arctic in 2015 is that, first of all, the author believes that Russia has not been active in Sino- Russian cooperation. During the many conferences between the heads of PRC and The Russian Federation, the Russian president did not welcome the Chinese side to build the Channel. On the one hand, they worried that China had too many attempts in the Arctic. On the other hand, Russia's main contradiction at that time was not developed in Arctic. Secondly, due to climate, navigation conditions, infrastructure and other reasons, China is uncertain about the feasibility of Arctic’s future. Finally, year of 2015 is the initial stage of the Belt and Road Initiative. China has chosen to include more mature and internationally recognized projects in official documents.
China's participation in the development of the Russian-led Arctic Channel in 2017 was based on the joint efforts of both parties. Reasons for Russia: First, primary progresses of the development in Arctic has been made. Second, the need of Arctic region is increasingly urgent. Third, Russia is sanctioned by Western countries, and Russia hopes to get help from China in the Arctic affairs. Fourth, infrastructure in the Arctic region is becoming more and more advanced, and Russia is more confident in attracting international partners. Fifth, Russia has new judgments on China's Arctic affairs. During this period, important breakthroughs were made in the docking of China-Russia projects and cooperation in infrastructure construction, and China's positive understanding of the development of the Arctic region continued to increase.
In my opinion, the article fully illustrates that Russia's dominate role in Arctic development affairs (development progress, degree of demand for international cooperation, etc.). Although the two countries have experienced some setbacks in reaching the cooperation in the Arctic region, both sides have attached great importance to them and also made positive actions. The overall situation is getting better. While doing analysis, the author cites a wide range of examples, which are extremely persuasive. However, in the analysis process, more emphasis was placed on the political level, and the exploration of economic significance was only a few words.
Relative information:
Written by: Zhu Yan?Wang Shuchun?Fei Junhui.
Title: Jointly Building the “Polar Silk Road”: An Analysis on the Causes of China’s Decision- Making Changes.
Publication: Journal of boundary and ocean studies. Vol. 4 No. 2 March 2019, pp.103-117.
Publishing language: Chinese.
DOI: 822.351.2;F125
Available from: http://proxy.library.spbu.ru:3072/kns/docdown/pubdownload.aspx?dk=kdoc%3apdfdown%3a28bba505cabd7dce9392f4510ea00828