Chinese President Hu Jintao's three-day visit to Denmark may ostensibly have been about signing billions worth of business deals, but a stake in Greenland's huge mineral wealth may have been the elephant in the room.
Greenland, a self-governing dependency of Denmark, has some of the world's biggest deposits of rare earth elements, strategically important metals in which China has a near monopoly. The North Atlantic island is also situated by sea lanes that are increasingly important as the Arctic melts.
That may explain why the leader of the world's most populous country decided to visit a nation of 5.6 million for three days.
"He didn't come just to look at the Little Mermaid," said Damien Degeorges, an associate researcher with the University of Greenland, referring to the small bronze statue of the mermaid from the fairytale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. . .View Full Article