A Chinese delegation went to Kemijärvi in the Arctic Circle in 2018 to offer to buy the local airport.
A delegation from the Chinese Communist Party‘s “Chinese Polar Research Center” visited a town in northern Finland in the Arctic Circle in 2018, offering to buy or lease the local airport, which happens to be strategically located near an important military exercise range for the Finnish military, a Finnish media report said on Thursday. The Chinese Communist Party claimed at the Time that the airport was “for the use of a Chinese Arctic research team,” but the proposal was rejected by the Finnish military due to political sensitivities and EU and Finnish regulations that explicitly prohibit foreign acquisition of strategically located airports.
According to the Finnish state broadcaster Yle, a Chinese delegation visited Kemijärvi in the Arctic Circle in 2018 and offered to buy the local airport. The airport would be used for landing and taking off Arctic research aircraft, and the Chinese side said it was willing to fully cover the costs of renovating and expanding the local airport. Reports indicate that the delegation included the director of the Polar Research Center, the director of the polar research office of China’s State Oceanic Administration, and an assistant major leader of the Chinese Communist Party military attaché in Finland.
Kemijärvi Mayor Atte Rantanen told the Finnish state broadcaster that the Chinese Communist Party wants to build an airlift base for Arctic research here, where large aircraft carrying research and surveying equipment are expected to land and take off.
Kemijärvi is located in Finland’s northern Arctic Circle, less than 100 kilometers from the Russian border, and the Russian military base on the Kola Peninsula (Guoládat) is just a few hundred kilometers away. The airport that China wants to buy is strategically located near Rovajärvi, an important military exercise ground for the Finnish military.
The route from Kemijärvi is not only available for research in the Arctic Sea, but also on the necessary route of the Northeast Passage, an area of great interest to both Russia and China. If China gets hold of the airport, Russia may also benefit from it.
Anu Sallinen, an adviser to the Finnish Ministry of Defense, said it is unlikely that such a strategically important property would fall into the hands of a foreign government unit.
The incident, which took place in 2018, has only been made public so far, a rare major move by the Chinese Communist Party in Finland that surprised Finnish China studies scholars.
Matti Nojonen, a professor at the University of Lapland, was quoted by the Finnish national broadcaster as saying that the CCP has made similar moves around the world, but this is the first time it has done so in Finland, which is surprising.
Timo Koivurova, a professor at the University of Lapland’s Arctic Center, says that the Chinese Polar Research Center has had many exchanges with research units in Finland and other Nordic countries, but he has never been aware of any Chinese interest in Kemijärvi Airport or other Finnish lands. He was surprised by the news. He has observed that the Chinese Communist Party is very active in polar research and has invested very heavily in it.
The “China Polar Research Center” is an official research unit of the Chinese Communist Party, and its leaders are Chinese Communist Party cadres.
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