What will we do about China "pushing its way" into the Arctic?

On Friday, August 4, eleven Chinese and Russian naval vessels sailed near the U.S. Aleutian Islands in Alaska, leading the Navy to dispatch four destroyers and a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft to monitor the formation. “This is unprecedented,” remarked U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), “not just for Alaska, but for America to have 11 warships jointly being operated by the Chinese and Russians — who are increasingly working together — essentially doing freedom of navigation and navigation operations incursions into Alaska’s area.”

The U.S. is an Arctic nation as much as it is an Atlantic or Pacific one. To defend American sovereignty in the high north, policymakers must not only do more to raise public awareness of security threats but also work to ensure that the U.S. is properly resourced to defend its national sovereignty. One immediate step that would help on both counts is for the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party to hold a public hearing on the threat from China in the region.