Beijing's men on the Northern Dvina

Our sea port is the key point of cooperation between Arkhangelsk and China, the port administration declared as a Chinese delegation paid a visit in mid-November. 

The delegation was headed by General Consul in St. Petersburg Luo Zhanhui. It included several business representatives, among them Ke Jin, the leader of the New New Shipping Line.

The Chinese shipping company is in the process of significantly strengthening its position in the Russian North. Reportedly, a total of 17,500 containers have been shipped between Chinese ports and northern Russia since 2024. The number of import and export shipments amounts to 14, according to the Arkhangelsk Sea Port.

The NewNew Shipping Line is known as the owner of the NewNew Polar Bear, a ship that was suspected of sabotage against underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea in 2023.

Since 2024, the NewNew Polar Bear and several of its sister ships have shuttled on the Northern Sea Route. According to Arkhangelsk Governor Aleksandr Tsybulsky, his region primarily supplies woodworking products to China and receives mainly technological products, machine-building products and components for the automotive industry in return. 

The Chinese shipping company cooperates with Torgmoll, a company which is closely connected with Russian business interests.

The New New Shipping Line is actively seeking to boost cooperation also with the region of Murmansk, and Director Fan Yuxin in late September met with regional Governor Andrei Chibis.  

Both parties are determined to work for more shipments and better port infrastructure in the region, Chibis emphasised in the meeting, and added that the ultimate plan is to be able to offer year-round shipments between the countries on the Northern Sea Route.

In the Chinese business delegation that visited Arkhangelsk this month was also Denpak Dao, a representative of the Chinese city of Qingdao. The port of Qingdao is known as a Chinese hub for Russian crude oil imports. It also has direct container shipping route connections with Russian ports like Vladivostok and Vostochny. 

Russia's so-called shadow fleet tankers have made hundreds of port calls at Qingdao.

Since the start of its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine and the subsequent introduction of massive international sanctions, Moscow has developed a major fleet of shadow vessels that brings sanctioned oil and other goods to international markets.

The shadow fleet is increasingly sailing also in the Arctic. In 2025, a major share of the vessels that made transit voyages on the Northern Sea Route was 'shadow tankers.' Many of them had Chinese ports as their destinations.

Other Chinese ports involved in Arctic shipments are Dalian, Shanghai, Ningbo-Zhoushan and Taicang.

Symptomatically, one of the last ships to sail on the route in November before sea ice covered the waters was the Buran, an LNG carrier that is sanctioned by the EU, USA, UK and several other countries. 

The Buran has, along with its sister vessels Iris, Voskhod and Zarya, repeatedly transported LNG from the sanctioned gas plant Arctic LNG 2 to China.

Arctic shipments between the two dictatorships are due to further increase in the coming years. In connection with the first container shipment to Arkhangelsk in August 2024, a Chinese diplomat emphasised that shipments on the Northern Sea Route "demonstrate the successful cooperation between China and Russia in the field of logistics routes."

The rulers in Beijing have a clear plan to strengthen Chinese engagement in the Arctic, and in 2018 published an ambitious Arctic Policy. 

According to the NewNew Shipping Company, its plans for shipments on the Northern Sea Route is a response to the government's white paper.

"[…] NewNew Shipping actively responded to the national call and expanded its business with a strong sense of mission, successfully opening up Arctic shipping routes. NewNew Shipping deeply understands that participating in the development of Arctic routes is not only a good opportunity for corporate development, but also a sacred mission to contribute to the country's strategic layout," a statement [translated from Chinese] from the company reads. 

The cooperation with Russia appears as a key part of China's Arctic strategy.

In a column that praises China's 15th Five-Year Plan, Consul General in St. Petersburg Luo Zhanhui highlights the importance of Chinese-Russian relations.

"Currently, under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China-Russia relations are at their best historical period. […]China is willing to work with Russia, guided by the consensus reached by the two heads of state, to strengthen solidarity and cooperation in various fields, jointly implement global development initiatives, global security initiatives, global civilization initiatives, and global governance initiatives, and work together to build a community with a shared future for mankind."