While the Chinese investor was denied his request to build a luxury hotel and golf course in Iceland, the Canadian military believes Huang Nubo’s ultimate goal extends much farther.
Huang’s intent to purchase the land in thr northeast Iceland farm of Grímsstaðir was a controversial one, with many questioning his credentials and intentions, even as others argued that Iceland needs the investment money. In the end, Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson decided that Huang did not meet the requirements of Icelandic law to buy or rent land for development.
While Huang plans his next move, the Globe and Mail reports that Canadian military planners believe that his true plans lie much further north – in the Arctic Ocean:
While most of us wonder whether the Arctic ice will melt sufficiently to make the Northwest Passage commercially navigable, one senior military official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on this matter, dismissed the passage as “a twisty, rural backwoods road” compared to the real northern passage that a warming planet will eventually open up: over the Pole.
And some people believe that China thinks the same thing. …
Acquiring Icelandic real estate, military officials suspect, is part of a Chinese plan to position strategic assets that could be converted to ports and staging facilities in pursuit of oil and gas exploration, and to ease the passage of vessels through a future trans-polar shipping route.
While Grímsstaðir is actually located hundreds of kilometres inland, Huang is currently looking elsewhere for his investment ideas anyway.
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