Chinas Polar Silk Road Reaches Britain Through Russias Arctic Corridor

The Russian “50 Years of Victory” nuclear-powered icebreaker is seen at the North Pole on Aug. 18, 2021. Ekaterina Anisimova/AFP via Getty ImagesA Chinese container ship has completed a voyage through the Arctic to a UK port, cutting transit time to Europe in half and signaling a deeper alignment between Beijing and Moscow.The Arctic, a region once defined by thick snow and isolation, is becoming a testing ground for power, now that it’s been proven that shipping times between Asia and the British Isles can be cut from roughly 40 to 18 days because of melting ice.