Kings Bay wants Chinese stone lions removed in Ny-Ålesund

Kings Bay (the state-owned company that runs Ny-Ålesund), the Norwegian state-owned company that runs the international research community in Ny-Ålesund, wants two stone lions taken away from the entrance of the Yellow River Station, China's research base on Svalbard. The Barents Observer reported that the request does not come from the government in Oslo. The request forms part of a new Kings Bay plan for fresh signs on the settlement's buildings. Under that plan, the Chinese symbols must be removed or moved inside. Its director, Lars ole Saugnes, said that the station is a tenant and that the company expects it to follow its instructions.

The station opened in July 2004 and was China's first research presence in the Arctic. It rents its building from Kings Bay. The lions have raised questions over the years about Chinese use of symbols to show its position.

Marc Lanteigne, a professor at UiT Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø who studies China's Arctic interests, told the Barents Observer that the lions have worried Norwegian authorities for a long time. He said there was an unwritten understanding that facilities there should focus on science and carry no open political symbols. He expects Beijing to react badly. According to him, Chinese scholars have recently criticised stronger Norwegian central control of research. This includes a limit to the physical sciences, which some in Chinese research circles see as a misreading of the Svalbard Treaty. He added that applying the sign rules to all of Ny-Ålesund may soften some protests, but that many in China will probably see it as Norway going too far.

More than 20 institutions work in Ny-Ålesund. Russia is absent there but does research from Barentsburg through the Kola Science Centre. Moscow wants a new science facility in Pyramiden and has invited partners from countries it calls friendly, China among them. Turkey and North Korea are the most recent signatories to the 1920 Svalbard Treaty.