China Continues Push Into Arctic with Plans for Manned Mission To Seafloor

By Malte Humpert (gCaptain) –

China’s Arctic ambitions continue unabated. Days after its first-ever patrol into the polar region off Alaska’s coast wrapped up, officials revealed plans to launch a manned seabed expedition to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. 

The project is reminiscent of Russia’s successful 2007 quest to reach the seafloor at the North Pole. The planting of a Russian flag at the seafloor was widely criticized at the time. If China succeeds in reaching the Arctic seabed it would become only the second country to do so. 

The mission will be spearheaded by China’s newest ice-capable polar research vessel Tan Suo San Hao, expected to enter into service in 2025. Tan Suo San Hao is the latest construction in a new generation of domestically-developed Arctic icebreakers and research vessels. Its construction from steel-cutting to launch took less than 10 months. It was preceded by the slightly smaller Ji Di. 

Initial tests of the submersible have been completed including, underwater docking and low-temperature performance. According to the developers at China’s State Shipbuilding Corporation the vessel has been developed entirely domestically. Previous submersibles, including Fen-Dou-Zhe, which reached the Challenger Depth in 2020, relied partly on Western technology.

According to the 704th Research Institute, also known as the Shanghai Ship Equipment Research Institute, the submersible “can be widely used in the future for polar scientific research, deep-sea oil and gas mineral resource exploration and production, seabed pipeline construction and maintenance [and] search and rescue operations.”

China has been aggressively pursuing seabed claims in the South China Sea. And while it is thousands of miles from the Arctic, China’s 2018 White Paper defines it as a “near-Arctic state,” a claim strongly rejected by the U.S. and other Western Arctic states.

The country stepped up its Arctic engagement throughout the summer and fall of 2024. It dispatched three icebreakers into the region at a time when the U.S. did not have any surface vessel presence in the Arctic. China’s newest icebreaker then visited Murmansk, Russia’s main Arctic port. 

Weeks later the two countries conducted the first-ever joint Arctic patrol, completing nearly 12,000 nautical miles and passing in proximity to Alaska’s coastline. China’s Weibo prominently featured the vessels’ return highlighting the patrol’s accomplishments.

China commercial interests in Arctic shipping also reached new highs this year with record-levels of crude oil deliveries and container shipping.

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