Canada #64 >>21698090

China Coast Guard Sails Into Arctic Waters

John Konrad October 2, 2024

China’s Coast Guard, which gained international attention last month during a 60 Minutes feature showcasing its harassment of Philippine ships, has made its Arctic debut. This is more than just a routine patrol. The strategic move, executed alongside Russia, marks the latest step in China’s ambitious plan to establish a “Polar Silk Road.”

This latest maneuver, carried out during China’s National Day holiday, signals a shift in the balance of influence in one of the planet’s most rapidly changing regions. As Arctic ice melts, opening up vast new shipping routes and untapped resources, Beijing and Moscow are seizing the opportunity to secure their polar presence.

The details are sparse but alarming. China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, broke the news, revealing that Chinese and Russian vessels were spotted together in the Bering Sea, cruising through the narrow stretch that divides Alaska from Russia. The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the sighting but offered no further comment. Russia, for its part, has yet to officially acknowledge the operation. Classic geopolitical theater: show of force, limited dialogue.

But this is about more than ships in icy waters. China’s Coast Guard didn’t mince words in its WeChat statement, emphasizing that this mission expands their operational scope and tests their capabilities in unfamiliar waters. Translation? They’re getting ready for something bigger.

The Arctic has never been more strategic. As climate change accelerates, melting ice is transforming the region into a new frontier for global power plays. Shipping routes that once took weeks now promise days, slashing travel time between Europe and Asia. China, which doesn’t even have an Arctic coastline, has declared the region one of its “new frontiers,” along with deep sea exploration, outer space, cyberspace, and, of course, artificial intelligence. In this context, China’s Arctic patrol isn’t just a headline—it’s part of a calculated push to assert influence where few thought it would.

While Russia may have opened the door to this partnership, it’s not out of benevolence. Sanctions stemming from its 2022 invasion of Ukraine have left Moscow economically strained, increasingly dependent on Chinese investment to fund Arctic development projects. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Russia has the Arctic assets; China has the cash—and the ambition.

Rear Admiral Megan Dean of the U.S. Coast Guard didn’t hold back when she weighed in, calling out the obvious: “This recent activity demonstrates the increased interest in the Arctic by our strategic competitors.” And she’s right. China and Russia are moving in while the U.S. watches from the sidelines.

What can the USCG do to match the threat?

This isn’t the first joint operation between the two nations. Last month, their militaries sent more than 10 ships and 30 aircraft to stage exercises in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk. Now, they’ve taken their collaboration to the Arctic, patrolling a region where the stakes are as high as the ice is thick.

Accoriding to reports by Malte Humpert in August, China for the first time dispatched three icebreaking vessels into the region this summer. The U.S., meanwhile, will remain without surface presence in the Arctic for the remainder of the year, possibly longer. Following last month’s fire aboard Coast Guard icebreaker Healy the vessel had to abort its Arctic patrol returning back to its homeport Seattle on a single engine. The only other USCG icebreaker, Polar Star, remains currently dry docked in an attempt to squeeze a few more years of service life out of the 55-year old vessel.

China’s largest and most capable icebreaking research vessel, Xue Long 2, departed for a months-long expedition in early July. Comparable in size and capability to Healy, the vessel passed through the Bering Strait weeks later and spent more than two weeks in the waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas to the north of Alaska, before continuing its voyage into the Central Arctic Ocean.

The smaller Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di, an icebreaker operated by Sun Yat-sen University, set sail on a similar path at the end of July. It currently sits 200 nautical miles from Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, in the Beaufort Sea.

Why did the Chinese Coast Guard Visit The Arctic?

And the reasons for this Arctic alliance are clear. Russia needs China’s economic muscle to push back against Western sanctions. China, in return, gets a shot at the Arctic’s shipping routes and resources—an alternative to the vulnerable Strait of Malacca and a key to reducing its dependency on established maritime chokepoints.

We do know that, a week after a Panamax container ship became the first vessel of its size to successfully transit the Arctic, another Chinese shipping operator dispatched a second Panamax box carrier which set a world record.

The 4,363 TEU NewNew Panda departed from Nansha near Hong Kong in southern China on September 19.Without any ice classification the vessel becomes the largest conventional container ship to attempt an Arctic crossing.

After traveling up the country’s coastline and passing through the south of the Korean peninsula it has now reached the Bering Strait. The 264 meter-long vessel received a permit from Russia’s Northern Sea Route authority to travel along the Arctic’s main corridor between October 1-15.

Its navigation permit limits it to ice-free waters, with or without icebreaker escort. With some early fall sea ice forming around Wrangel Island in the Far East the vessel will likely make a wide pass around that archipelago.

It’s a high-stakes game that’s only just beginning. In August, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed an agreement to develop Arctic shipping lanes, further intertwining their geopolitical interests. The U.S., meanwhile, has sounded alarms about the potential for instability in the region, but both China and Russia have brushed off those concerns.

Behind the scenes, the Arctic is becoming a battleground for influence and access. In a July report, the Pentagon highlighted Russia’s military buildup in the region, which includes reopening and modernizing Soviet-era bases. China, meanwhile, is sinking serious resources into polar exploration, making no secret of its intentions to build what it calls a “Polar Silk Road.”

So, what does this mean? The Arctic, once a frozen backwater, is fast becoming the new global hotspot. As the ice recedes, it’s not just about ships cutting through; it’s about a power shift—one that Beijing and Moscow are determined to steer. And as the U.S. watches this partnership grow, the Arctic’s future is starting to look a lot less neutral and a lot more like a strategic chessboard, where every move counts.

This latest patrol? Just the opening gambit. The real game is only beginning.

https://gcaptain.com/china-coast-guard-enters-arctic-a-power-move-with-russia/

>>21698402

South Carolina Hero Pilot Threatened with Arrest by Local Bureaucrats While Rescuing Flood Victims — Claims He was ‘Interfering with the Operation’

by Jim Hᴏft Oct. 2, 2024

Local authorities have threatened to arrest a former law enforcement officer turned volunteer pilot, Jordan Seidhom, as he undertakes life-saving rescue missions for stranded families in the wake of devastating floods in the North Carolina mountains.

On Saturday morning, Seidhom, a seasoned pilot with nearly 1,400 flight hours and a Class 1 certified law enforcement background, learned about a family stranded in Banner Elk, North Carolina, via social media, according to Queen City News.

With their supplies dwindling and desperate pleas for help flooding in, he took matters into his own hands along with his high school junior son, Landon. Loading his helicopter with bottled water and food, he set off to save lives.

“I thought, I have a helicopter, maybe I can help,” Seidhom told Queen City News Chief Investigator Jody Barr.

His heroic actions led to the successful rescue of multiple stranded individuals, including a pair of women lacking food and water and even a couple trapped on a precarious mountainside.

“And there were two other ladies who were out of town. They were staying at an Airbnb. They only had one day of supplies, which was gone by Saturday. They didn’t have any food, water, no running water, no power. And we were coming back this direction anyway, so we actually took them to Charlotte-Douglas Airport and they were able to fly home from there.”

“Not anybody who was in danger or they were just trapped. No food, no water, no access to power and water. We were going to lift them from the area, nice landing spots and take them back down to civilization.”

However, the situation took a dramatic turn when Seidhom returned to the Lake Lure area for a second day of rescue missions.

“I spoke with my son, which is my copilot. I said, ‘Hey do you want to go back out and try to help today?’ And his response was, ‘There’s so many messages. I don’t think we can’t not go help,’” Seidhom told QC News.

Queen City News reported:

They got back into the black Robinson 44 helicopter and headed west once again through the mountain gap in Lake Lure.

“As we were flying by, my son actually spotted a lady waving for help. And I asked him, I said, ‘Hey, is she waving for help or she just waving?’ He said, ‘No, I think she’s waving for help.’”

Seidhom and his son conducted a “low and high recon” for power lines and trees that might have been in the way, then gingerly lowered his chopper down onto what was left of the couple’s concrete driveway. The flood waters had washed away most of the ground beneath it.

Seidhom’s video shows him leaving the helicopter to greet the couple, and then returning with a gameplan a few seconds later. The audio in the recording captured the exchange between the father and son, “Hey, I want you to let me get in, you step out and go out, help her in, put her bag in the back, get her strapped in. I’m going to take her down, come back and I’ll take him, I’ll come back and then I’ll get you, okay?” the elder Seidhom told his son.

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Seidhom said his main concern was putting too much weight on the driveway and it crumbling from beneath. He left his son and the woman’s husband to make the three-minute flight to a group of first responders positioned along the river below the mountain.

After he and his son loaded the woman into the chopper, Seidhom told his son to stay put and he’d be right back to get the husband, “I originally left my son, copilot, on the side of the mountain. It was kind of unstable, so I didn’t want to put more weight on the helicopter to lift back off. So, I left my son with the other victim. And I was just going to take one person down at the time,” Seidhom said.

After landing to coordinate with local first responders, he was confronted by a fire official who abruptly halted his operations.

The official reportedly threatened Seidhom with arrest if he attempted to continue his rescue efforts, claiming that Seidhom was “interfering” with their operations.

“Once we landed where emergency personnel were, I was met by a fire chief or maybe a captain, and he asked me who I was. I told him who I was, who I was with, just a local volunteer,” Seidhom said.

“I told him my background experience, law enforcement, firefighting, and pilot and he immediately started helping with coordination. He gave me radio frequencies to coordinate with them on, set up a landing area for me to come back with the other victim, and just basically started the rescue efforts; the policies and procedures that you would take coordinating with someone from an outside source or outside agency. And in the middle of the whole conversation and them blocking the road off, I was greeted by the – at that time I didn’t know – but the Lake Lure fire chief, or assistant chief, maybe. And he shut down the whole operation.”

“He originally asked me who I was. I gave him the same information, who I was with, my background experience, law enforcement, and firefighting. And his response was, if you have that kind of experience, you should know that you should be coordinating with us. And I said, I’ve been coordinating with everybody as I’ve been here just the day before, speaking with local law enforcement, other rescue personnel,” Seidhom added.

“I explained to him that I left my son on the side of the mountain, and I left another victim. I was going to go back and bring them, it was already set up for the landing spot and then I would get out of his area. He told me I wasn’t going to go back up the mountain to get them, I was going to leave them there.”

“I’m going back and getting my copilot. ‘If you turn around and go back up the mountain, you’re going to be arrested.’ I said, ‘Well, sir, I’m going back to get my copilot, I don’t know what to tell you.’”

At that point, two law enforcement officers were called over, and the threat of arrest loomed large.

“At that point, I had to make a decision. I have a victim, I have my son, and I politely asked the officers, told him the situation again, explained everything, told them who I’d been coordinating with, and I said, ‘Hey if I go back up and get this victim and bring him down to this landing spot that other emergency personnel have designated, am I going to be arrested? And the officers’ response was, ‘Man, I really don’t know what to do in this situation.’ I said, ‘So you can’t tell me if I’m going to get arrested or not?’ And he said, ‘Man, I’ve I’m not sure what to do.’”

Seidhom said he asked the official for a specific reason why he was being ordered to stop his rescue efforts. The fire official’s response, according to Seidhom, was simply, “You’re interfering with my operation.”

Within half an hour of the fire official’s arrest threat, Seidhom said a Temporary Flight Restriction was established over the Lake Lure gap, directly over the area where he and the fire official had confronted each other.

Seidhom initially thought the fire chief was from Michigan and had traveled to North Carolina to aid in the rescue efforts. However, he later confirmed the official’s identity as a Lake Lure fire officer through the town’s website.

The Gateway Pundit has reached out to Lake Lure Fire and Emergency Management for their official response.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/10/south-carolina-hero-pilot-threatened-arrest-local-bureaucrats/