Aerial view of China’s icebreaker Xue Long 2 berthing at the pier of Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center on July 3 in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China.
This icebreaker, delivered in 2019 and with a displacement of about 14,000 tons, is said to be the first icebreaking vessel capable of breaking polar ice with both its bow and stern in the world.
The Diplomat provides an unusually balanced assessment of China’s current icebreaker competence. It also projects their growing technical development.
It looks at the relationship between China and Russia in the Arctic, opportunism but with some degree of distrust.
China’s largest and most capable icebreaking research vessel, Xue Long 2. Snow Dragon 2, sails in Antarctica’s Prydz Bay in this aerial photo taken on Nov. 19, 2019
It talks about the Chinese military’s interest in polar regions, not just the Arctic, they see the Antarctic as an area of possible future conflict.
Aerial view of China’s icebreaker Ji Di berthing at the pier of Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center on July 3 in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China.
© Sun Qimeng/VCG via AP
Also of interest is the growing number of ships of various types that are not icebreakers, in the usual sense of a ship that breaks ice to allow other ships to pass, but are ships of various types that are simply designed to operate independently in ice covered waters.
China’s first icebreaker, Ukrainian built, Xue Long 1. Snow Dragon 1
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