S8 Ep384: Charles Burton and Gordon Chang observe the contest in Arctic waters, analyzing competing claims and military positioning as Russia, China, and Western nations vie for polar strategic advantage.
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Betts with Gordon Chang at Gordon Ging, my colleague and co-host, and we're headed north, |
| 0:21.7 | way north, the Arctic oceans. |
| 0:24.6 | And our guide is Charles Burton. |
| 0:27.5 | Charles is the author of the extremely important revelatory book, The Beaver and the Dragon, |
| 0:32.6 | about Canada and China. |
| 0:35.1 | You bet, Charles anticipated where we are right now because those two states, |
| 0:41.0 | sovereign Canada and sovereign the People's Republic of China, are now tangled up in |
| 0:45.9 | negotiations that have to do with trade, but at bottom, all global trade stories are about |
| 0:52.0 | territory, about who owns what and where the line is. And right now, |
| 0:58.1 | there is no line that anyone counts on in the Arctic. There are Arctic nations. They |
| 1:03.6 | participate together. Russia is one. Canada's one. But there are near Arctic nations, so says the People's Republic of China. |
| 1:13.5 | Hence, the negotiation between Ottawa and Beijing over trade is also a conversation about the Arctic passages opening because of the climate adjustment change over the next century or more. I'm told that in theory, |
| 1:31.9 | the opening of those lanes reduces the travel time from Asia to Europe and vice versa |
| 1:38.7 | dramatically, enough to save everybody money and become popular. In other words, we're debating the fabled Northwest Passage. |
| 1:47.3 | Charles, a very good day to you. |
| 1:48.7 | Enough predicate. |
| 1:50.2 | Is this debate about the Arctic and your Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic? |
| 1:55.8 | Is it on the front pages yet or is still a matter of the think tanks? |
| 1:59.4 | Good day to you, Charles. |
| 2:00.6 | Good day. I mean, it is on the front pages in the sense that there is a realization that Canada |
| 2:05.6 | is unable to defend its sovereign territory in the north. And previously, we had assumed that |
| 2:11.4 | this was not a problem because the United States would be there with military might, if necessary. |
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