How a potential Chinese-built airport in Greenland could be risky for a vital US Air Force base

Snow blows near the U.S. Air Force’s Thule Air Base on March 25, 2017, in Pituffik, Greenland. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

 

WASHINGTON — With less than 60,000 people spread across more than 830,000 square miles, Greenland relies heavily on air transport to move supplies and people up and down its coast.

So when the local government issued a solicitation to build three new airports, the move made sense from a business perspective. The project would be expensive, but would improve commerce and make life on the island easier for its residents.

Then a Chinese company — owned by the government in Beijing, and once blacklisted by the World Bank — put forth a bid, and a simple request for proposals transformed into a project with international diplomatic ramifications.

US Air Force Bolsters Space Defense to Counter Russian, Chinese ‘Threats’

As global powers prepare for the increased role of outer space in future conflicts, the US Air Force has announced the creation of a new team whose sole purpose is to protect American space assets – primarily against Russian and Chinese “aggression.”

Currently, US satellite navigation is claimed to be dangerously understaffed. Gen. John Hyten, commander of Air Force Space Command, stated to reporters in December 2015 that, “two 19-year-old airmen are the two guys flying GPS this morning for the entire world. That’s wrong.”