SHANGHAI, CHINA – MAY 6: The Chinese research icebreaker “Xuelong 2”, also known as Snow Dragon 2, arrived at Waigaoqiao Port on May 6, 2021 in Shanghai, China, after a more than five-month Antarctic expedition.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed threat to take control of Greenland has put Beijing on high alert, following Washington’s military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
President Trump, who has long insisted on U.S. control over the autonomous Danish territory, reiterated on Sunday the strategic importance of Greenland.
“We need Greenland because of the national security situation. It’s very strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered in Russian and Chinese ships everywhere,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said in an email to Chinese state media Xinhua that President Trump views acquiring Greenland as a national security priority to thwart rivals in the Arctic. He added that his team is considering various options, including the possibility of using military force.
Chinese authorities objected to this. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lin Jian on Monday criticized the United States for “using the so-called ‘China threat’ as an excuse to pursue its own selfish interests.”
frozen frontier
In its 2018 official Arctic policy, China referred to itself as a “near-Arctic nation” and claimed the right to exploit resources and develop shipping routes in the Arctic.
State-owned Chinese companies are also investing heavily in Arctic energy projects and developing maritime routes that could shorten shipping times between Asia and Europe.
“Given Beijing’s commercial interests in the island, from resource exploration to the security of the Northern Sea Route, China will strongly oppose any U.S. move to take control of Greenland,” said Xinbo Wu, director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai-based Fudan University.
The Pentagon has identified China and Russia as major competitors in the region, citing their expanding military capabilities and joint naval patrols as risks to national security.
Wu said Beijing may seek to defray US costs through multilateral diplomacy and deepen military cooperation with Russia in the Arctic region to deter the US.
“We are truly entering uncharted territory and need to be very careful,” said Henry Wang, founder and director of the China and Globalization Center, a think tank that often aligns with Beijing’s thinking.
“The international community should now come together and perhaps stop this kind of unilateral approach.”
Energy, rare earths, infrastructure
Eurasia Group’s China director Dan Wang said the Chinese government’s main interests in Greenland mirror those of the United States, such as rare earths, uranium and zinc.
Greenland, a vast and sparsely populated autonomous territory of Denmark, is home to several large deposits of rare earth elements, and some of the discovered mines rank among the largest in the world. These minerals are essential to high-tech industries, from electric cars to defense equipment.
In addition to the United States and China, the European Union has also sought to secure access to these critical mineral supplies.
Patrick Andersson, an analyst at the Swedish National China Center at the Swedish Institute for International Affairs, said Chinese investors had become “quite cautious” about Greenland in recent years amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty.
Denmark retains legal powers to block foreign investment on national security grounds.
In 2016, Copenhagen blocked a Hong Kong-related company’s attempt to acquire a former Danish naval base and associated port facilities. A Chinese state-owned company also withdrew its bid for an airport construction contract worth 3.6 billion Danish kroner ($563 million) in 2019 after Greenland chose Denmark over Beijing to finance the project.
Anderson noted that China’s interest in Greenland’s minerals may already appear to have been declining even before the recent rise in geopolitical risks, in part because of the high costs of operating there.
“From a commercial perspective, Chinese investors may find more attractive opportunities elsewhere,” he added.
Some Chinese-backed projects in Greenland have also been stalled due to environmental concerns.
Chinese state-owned enterprises Morikawa Resources The company acquired an interest in the Kubaneveld project in southern Greenland in 2016. The project was supposed to be one of the world’s largest rare earth uranium mines, but was canceled when Greenland reinstated its ban on uranium mining in 2021.
Some analysts have estimated China’s investment in the Arctic at more than $90 billion, describing it as “unconstrained,” but Harvard University’s Kennedy School said this figure is “highly exaggerated” as it also includes failed investments and unbuilt projects.
According to a June 2025 estimate from Harvard University, most Chinese-backed mineral, oil and gas projects in Greenland have been suspended or canceled.
Despite these setbacks, the Arctic nation of Greenland opened a representative office in Beijing in 2023 in a bid to deepen ties with Beijing.
“Polar Silk Road”
China is eyeing new shipping routes as the ice melts and opens shorter shipping routes between Asia and Europe. China’s exports to the European Union, the second-largest trading bloc, rose 8.1% year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2025.
The Chinese government formally introduced a “Polar Silk Road” in its 2018 Arctic Policy White Paper, opening the first Arctic sea route to Europe in September 2025, reducing transit time to about 20 days and roughly half the time required for a journey through the Suez Canal.
Zoha Fatima, a researcher specializing in Arctic governance and geopolitics, said alternative routes not only offer Beijing “tremendous economic opportunities” through faster trade and access to untapped natural resources, but also “a strategic challenge to the US dominance of global sea lanes.”
China has also expanded its Arctic research efforts over the years, supporting discoveries related to sea ice composition, space weather, and marine life.
Building on existing projects in Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland, China also plans to build a research and satellite ground station in Greenland.
These facilities are critical to China’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System, which was developed as a replacement for the U.S. GPS system.
China’s polar research program has raised safety concerns in the Arctic. In 2022, the Biden administration claimed that China was using its scientific engagement to conduct “dual-use research with intelligence or military applications.”
Eurasia’s Wang said: “If President Trump were to occupy Greenland, Beijing would frame it as a sign of US unilateralism and the militarization of the North Atlantic, while emphasizing Danish and Greenlandic autonomy and respect for UN-based rules.”
— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng and Emily Tan contributed to this article.
