Demonstrating PLAN ability to easily deploy to the region to assist a Chinese ship’s passage or respond to provocations from the United States or Russia may be a key part of the Aleutian visit. International law guarantees the right of transit passage to ships of all nations through these types of straits, but it is no surprise that seafaring nations have been wary that this right will always be upheld by littoral strategic competitors (see the Straits of Hormuz, forming a chokepoint to the Persian Gulf that gives Iran constant leverage to threaten global energy supplies and allied forces in the region). These realities may not sit well with Chinese military planners. and Russia have touted the Arctic Council as the premiere forum for intergovernmental cooperation among Arctic states and were instrumental in delaying Chinese observer status from 2007 to 2013. The idea that the Arctic should be governed by Arctic states is a small sliver of U.S.-Russian like-mindedness. While Russia maintains close ties to China, it appears reluctant to accommodate the Arctic ambitions of a non-Arctic power. All of these economic issues are key to China’s Arctic ambitions and yet make them vulnerable to Russian and U.S. One must pass through it to access the so-called “Northern Sea Route” passage across Russia’s northern coast, to access the Canadian Northwest Passage, or merely to chase lucrative fish stocks as they migrate further north in search of cooler waters in a warming climate. and Russian islands in-between, the Bering Strait is an overlooked choke point in the world’s oceans. With only 51 miles separating the eastern tip of mainland Russia and the western tip of mainland Alaska, with a scattering of U.S. Rush Doshi, Alexis Dale-Huang, and Gaoqi Zhang’s recent comprehensive Brookings report on China’s Arctic ambitions puts it best: “China sees itself not only as having interests in the Arctic but also as being on course - over the period from 2015 to 2030 - to become a ‘polar great power.’” For that, the Bering Strait is essential. Explaining its Arctic ambitions in a 2018 white paper, Beijing highlighted the importance of access to the region, stating, “The utilization of sea routes and exploration and development of the resources in the Arctic may have a huge impact on the energy strategy and economic development of China, which is a major trading nation and energy consumer in the world.” In other words, they expect unfettered access to the region.

This is not the first time that PLAN vessels have deployed to the Alaskan coast a similar deployment occurred in 2015. Federal Executive Fellow - The Brookings Institution

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