Chinese Must Remove Stone Lions from the Arctic: Reports

A Norwegian state-owned company will ask China’s polar institute to remove two white stone lions and a name plaque at the entrance of a Chinese research facility in Norway’s Arctic in a subtle reassertion of Norwegian sovereignty over the geopolitically sensitive region, Norwegian state media NRK has reported.

Newsweek reported on China’s growing ambitions in the Arctic – and the stone lions from Shanghai – last July. The request also affects a gold-colored plaque with the name “Yellow River Station” in English and Chinese at the entrance to China’s research facility, the report said.

The Arctic is the scene of intensifying geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China and Russia. At stake are minerals and shipping routes as well as locations for research and communications posts that have important implications for space technology and potentially for weapons.

Norway has sovereignty over the Svalbard archipelago but manages it according to the terms of the Spitsbergen, or Svalbard, Treaty that was drawn up in 1920 and which granted certain rights to signatories. China signed the treaty under a previous government that ruled until 1949 when the Communist Party of China seized power.

NRK cited local media Svalbardposten that Norwegian authorities wanted to make it clear with the request that there was only one research station in Ny-Ålesund, that it was Norwegian, and that Norway hosts all researchers on Svalbard.

The sign – and the stone lions – went against that according to NRK: “The sign says ‘Yellow River Station,’ even though it is a research office and not a research station.”

Newsweek has reached out for comment to the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC) in Shanghai, the Chinese embassy in Oslo, and Kings Bay, the Norwegian limited liability state company that manages a Norwegian research station in Ny-Ålesund, in the Svalbard archipelago, where China’s “Yellow River Station” opened in 2004.

Other countries were also affected by the request, NRK said, including India and South Korea, which also sported national or cultural symbols on their research facilities.

Norway formally complained to Chinese diplomats last year when a boat carrying 183 Chinese tourists wearing matching red jackets, some of whom former members of the Chinese military and at least one wearing a current People’s Liberation Army uniform, landed at Ny-Ålesund carrying red banners with patriotic slogans and Chinese national flags, in a boisterous celebration of the 20th anniversary of China’s research there. The event was deemed provocative by the Norwegian authorities.