First Arctic cargo ship arrives at Felixstowe from China

Anna Chen – 31 October 2025, China’s Arctic route

I watched the historic arrival of the Istanbul Bridge container ship at Felixstowe, UK, on Monday 13 October, completing its record-breaking 20-day maiden voyage from China through the Arctic Ocean, a route that slashes the regular Suez Canal travel time by more than half. 

The “Polar Silk Road” is a game-changer for trade, delivering essential goods like solar panels, clothing, electronics and EVs to Europe while challenging the dynamics of the US-China trade war. Tracking its journey from departure from Ningbo on September 22nd to its arrival in British drizzle, I see a significant moment for UK-China relations and global environmental policy. 

The tragic aspect of the newly navigable route is that it’s only been made possible by the melting of the polar ice-cap as the planet warms up. Nearly two centuries of carbon emissions from the developed world will do that. However, one consolation is that the faster route reduces pollution by cutting fuel consumption.

Of course, CNN and western media thundered all over the melting ice issue nearly two centuries after the West’s industrial revolutions began pumping out carbon from their dark, satanic mills, conveniently forgetting that America, Britain and Europe were supposed to have been working to combat climate change together with China and the rest of the world.

But what with Trump calling global warming a hoax on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, Joe Biden doubling down on character assassination of China with a bloated propaganda budget of 1.6 billion dollars, and the UK abandoning Net Zero, China was left doing all the heavy environmental lifting on its own. No other country has planted more forests or invested as much in renewables.

The culprits who blew up the Nordstream pipeline, releasing tons of carbon into the atmosphere, didn’t exactly help either. And war is one of the most polluting activities ever. What do they think Trump’s return to nuclear weapons testing is going to do for the environment? The wagging finger points and having pointed should move on and tell their governments to sort out their environmental policies. 

The Arctic route isn’t just about a faster shipping lane; it’s about a new era of Eurasian trade. A second chance to build on the BRICS consolidation marked by the arrival of the first freight train that travelled from China to Barking in East London in January 2017. Should that fail, we can guess where this is all leading us. 

One moment Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize, the next he’s blowing up fishing boats and priming his Viking raiding party to invade Venezuela. One moment it’s Russia and Iran in the firing line, the next it’s Nigeria. He wants Greenland and Canada but not today. He loves Kim and Vlad, but not China, grrr, cast as the ultimate Big Bad in the neocon Marvel Universe. Trump’s like a cat chasing a laser pen.

Don’t blink because Trump and Xi are suddenly bezzie mates since Friday’s meeting in South Korea, although the Don didn’t stick around for the crucial APEC 2025 summit lest he be overshadowed or caught out as some sort of fraud, heaven forfend. Should we overlook the nuclear test threat he made only hours before he came on like a big love-struck lug as Xi kept him waiting in full glare of the world’s press? Did Xi flinch internally when the Don touched his back, repressing a shudder of revulsion, because he knows about the update to the presidential Doomsday bunker under the White House East Wing going on at the same time as Trump’s pitching woo? 

One thing remains constant throughout the corkscrew turns and crude smoke and mirrors: the imperialist core of the American settler state ever since the wiping out of native Americans and the enslavement of Africans. Imperialism is, as any reputable dictionary will tell you: “The extension of a nation’s authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political dominance over other nations.” As Laurence Ferlinghetti observed, America is the bird with two right wings.

If a world war is indeed building under malign western neocon influence, then trade unifying the Eurasia landmass and beyond is a major part of any peaceful remedy.

Go on: prove me wrong. Let’s hope Britain grabs this opportunity to get us out of danger. But don’t hold your breath.

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