It is a welcome development. Officially the Arctic does not belong to any country, but there is an Arctic Council consisting of the eight member states bordering the territories: Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Denmark. On this point there are couple of observations:  It is jocular that the major powers are aiming to divide the riches of Arctic based on the countries bordering the region. We need criterions that are more meaningful and sensible. China has always exhibited "trade-centric" attributes while doing business (Africa and Latin America being the classic examples). Hence, partnering with China in the Arctic region would not be counterproductive to either of the existing members. Readers should not misunderstand the urge of the Chinese to move overseas. Increasingly large number of Chinese businesses are moving out because they face the risk of being outsmarted fiercely in the domestic market which is the most cut-throat business environment for businesses as both foreign and local players compete by leveraging the same benefits (cheap labor, electricity, land, water, tax incentives) et al. Hence, China doesn't aim at colonizing foreign territories economically.  Moreover, China possess a reasonable level of expertise in exploring mineral resources (thanks to their experience in local markets and African states) and hence their experience would be of great help to the existing Arctic members.  

The People's Republic of China is not an arctic nation and has nothing to do in the arctic area, the resources in the arctic belong to the arctic nations and no one else. China is beginning to become more and more gutsy, first Africa then the Arctic. In 10-20 years we'll see that China has become a more imperialistic state, that will interfere in other nations business, wait and see. Increased power means interference, just look at the US, and when the USSR they did it to. China is currently colonizing African states through economical means, they don't want to help anybody, they want to earn money.... Nothing more.

ben benito wrote in #1
It is great to see a powerful country asking to join nortic-states as ( a junior partner not as a bully.) Maybe the U.S. and Zionist west should learn something from this. 
Ha.. CHina is completely the opposite of Corrupted States of NA ,UK and France.. they don't put a gun in others countries leaders head to accept their deals.. check for example what africans think of CHina.. from wiki..
- - -  - -Southern Sudanese hip-hop star Emmanuel Jal noted that China was seen positively by Sudanese and Africans due to its non interference policy, only doing business, saying- "The Chinese don't influence our politics, They don't comment on it, and what they want, they pay for -- sometimes double the amount. This tends to make all Africans happy -- from the dictators to the democrats, There isn't a party in Africa that doesn't like them. Even if you're a rebel movement and you say to them you can secure gold, the Chinese will simply say they want to buy it.- - - 
IF the west did business like china there will be ZERO wars in the middle east or africa. zero invasions and no coups to take their country resources with the pretext of "democracy" or "human rights".