The U.S. Coast Guard shadowed two Chinese research ships operating in disputed waters within the Arctic Ocean last week, the Coast Guard announced Wednesday.
The icebreakers Ji Di and Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di were traveling more than 200 miles offshore of Utqiagvik, America’s northernmost town, in what’s known as the “extended continental shelf” under the International Law of the Sea Treaty.
Ordinarily, international law restricts a nation’s fishing, oil drilling and scientific exploration to within 200 nautical miles of its coast, in what’s known as its “exclusive economic zone.” Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation can extend that exclusive limit if the continental shelf — a place of generally shallower water — stretches beyond 200 miles.
More than 160 countries and the European Union have ratified the Law of the Sea agreement, but the United States has not, despite the urging of members of Alaska’s congressional delegation.
The agreement says foreign vessels may pass through extended continental shelf waters, but they must have the owner’s consent in order to perform scientific studies or seafloor mapping there.
The United States claims the extended continental shelf near its shorelines and in 2023 began the international process to have its claims recognized, but the United Nations committee that regulates the agreement has not finalized the American claims, a process that could take decades because the United States is not a party to the agreement.
Meanwhile, despite the lack of international recognition, the United States has continued to claim sovereignty over the extended continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean.
In late April, the Trump administration announced that it was beginning to plan oil and gas lease sales in the disputed area.
China, which operates more Arctic icebreakers than does the United States, has contended that the Arctic Ocean should remain open to free navigation.
Last week, when the two Chinese research icebreakers crossed into the disputed area, the Coast Guard dispatched the icebreaker Healy, which was already operating in the Arctic Ocean under a different mission.
“They were pretty close to the standard 200 nautical mile EEZ boundary. They were outside of that by a few miles, which is directly over that portion that is being claimed right now … by the United States,” said Troy Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
“It’s deliberate in several ways,” he said of the Chinese action. “It’s meant to get attention but not go over the line.”
He said some of China’s actions in the Arctic have been to “promote it as a global commons that belongs to everybody, and to minimize sovereign rights as much as possible. So that’s a pretty obvious reason why they would have done this at the location they did.”
Chief Petty Officer Travis Magee, assistant public affairs officer for the U.S. Coast Guard’s Arctic District, said that in cases like the ones that occurred this week, the typical response is to “monitor, and query the vessels” over the radio, frequently using a pre-prepared script.
The script he said, often goes like this:
“You are currently operating over the United States Extended Continental Shelf (ECS). Under international law, the United States has rights to conserve and manage the living and non-living natural resources of its ECS as well as to regulate marine scientific research by foreign scientists relating to its ECS. In all cases where marine scientific research is pursued on the Extended Continental Shelf, appropriate official channels must be used to obtain U.S. consent.”
The Coast Guard also flew a long-range patrol aircraft from Kodiak to shadow the two ships.
Rear Adm. Bob Little, commander of the Arctic District, said in a prepared statement that “the U.S. Coast Guard is controlling, securing and defending the northern U.S. border and maritime approaches in the Arctic to protect U.S. sovereignty, and Healy’s operations demonstrate the critical need for more Coast Guard icebreakers to achieve that.”
While the U.S. Navy frequently operates submarines in the Arctic Ocean, it does not have any icebreakers; the Coast Guard operates the federal government’s only icebreaking ships.
The recently approved Republican budget package known as the “Big Beautiful Bill Act” included billions of dollars for the Coast Guard to construct new heavy icebreakers.
The first of those ships is expected to enter service in 2030, though some medium-weight icebreakers are being planned and could arrive sooner.
As an interim measure, the Coast Guard purchased and commissioned an icebreaking oilfield services ship, renaming it the Storis.
At the time of the Healy’s intercept in the Arctic Ocean, the Storis was conducting training operations in the Bering Sea.