After Hormuz, China looks to the promise – and peril – of the Arctic’s ‘ice silk road’

China has established the first scheduled transit through the northern sea route, but questions remain over the environmental and political risks When Marco Rubio suggested that the world should look to new shipping lanes to bypass the logjammed strait of Hormuz, it’s unlikely he had the Arctic’s northern sea route in mind. And yet in recent months the promise of this 5,500km channel – cleaved through frozen seas by nuclear-powered icebreakers and illuminated by a sun that never dips below the Arctic horizon – has grown. After a single pilot voyage in 2025, Sea Legend has launched a regular container service via the Arctic route. That direct journey from Ningbo-Zhoushan to Felixstowe in the UK takes as little as 18 days compared with more than 40 days via the Suez canal.

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