Pros And Cons To China As Permanent Obseryer Of The Arctic Council

With the Arctic ice melting at rapid pace, Arctic environmental and resources issues gradually draw attentions of political and academic circles of all states. Due to decentralized governance of the Arctic, the Arctic Council started to assume the primary responsibility of dealing with Arctic environmental and sustainable development issues, and tends to extend to channel and resources areas. The Arctic Council is established by the Arctic Eight, and opens to sovereign states and international organizations by allowing them to become observers of the Council. The Arctic Council naturally became the best platform to participate in Arctic affairs and safeguard Arctic rights in the eyes of non-Arctic states ever since, and China is one of them. China filed an application to the Council in 2006 and obtained permanent observer status in 2013. But there is lack of domestic studies on what the benefits are that the observer status will bring to China, and how it would hinder China to advocates its Arctic rights, not to mention analyzing the essence of the Council itself and its observer system. This paper will reveal the essential causes of the Arctic Council setting a stringent observer system through detailed analysis of China’s accession to the Council and the system itself, to reflect problems in the Arctic Council and explore pros and cons of China’s permanent observer status. Propose recommendations based on aforementioned analysis and reality, note that it is necessary to make good use of this status as well as to go beyond the mechanisms of the Council to seek for other ways.This paper is divided into six sections. The other four sections will describe detail contents, except for Preface and Conclusion.The first section will describe the development process of the Arctic Council and its recent trends. Elaborate the history of the establishment of the Council as well as tendencies in recent years to understand the purpose and scope of work of the Council. And note the specific performance of mechanism and legalization of the Council. Then introduce its composition and organization, and reveal the Council as a "high level forum" but not an informal international organization to demonstrate its birth defects:it is the product of compromise between the Arctic countries, hence it not only has no power on matters relating to sensitive areas, but also rejects non-Arctic states’ participation.The second section focuses on the content and essence of the observer system. Lay out sorts of observers, qualifications of access, acquisition procedure and implementing system of rights will give a whole understanding of the Observer System. Which is followed by interpretation of Arctic Council’s consideration on granting China the permanent observer status, proves the Council value contributions of observers the most, and laid the foundation of unilateral obligations for observers. At last, analyze essence of the observer system and the Arctic Council, demonstrate a stringency observer system, and reveal the Arctic Council’s Monroe Doctrine attribute of having both openness and exclusivism at the same time.The third section will answer the question that why China participates in Arctic affairs and insists to join the Arctic Council by listing China’s Arctic rights. Then lay out positive impact and challenge to protect Arctic rights to China as permanent observer separately.The fourth section concludes routes of realizing China’s Arctic rights. There are Arctic Council mechanism way and beyond the Arctic Council mechanism way. By using the Council mechanism, China will have to identify different matters and subjects. Adopting different forms of cooperation with different members, and taking different approaches to different matters. The main purpose is to eliminate doubts of the Arctic Eight about China’s intervening in Arctic affairs. There are many available ways except for the Arctic Council mechanism, including existing systems, treaties and other international organizations. Under the circumstances that there is no formal binding authority and complete legal system in the Arctic region, international treaty is a more practical basis. While other organizations and platforms can also handle parts of the Arctic affairs, it can be another good way for China to apply for these organizations. At last, to effectively achieve the goal of protecting Arctic rights, China will have to formulate a clear strategy to the Arctic, and to develop relevant domestic legislation as a prerequisite.