Chinese state-owned company bids in airport construction contract that would grant it significant influence in Greenland
In March 2018, Greenlandic authorities chose Chinese state-owned enterprise China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) as one of the finalists for a contract to build a major expansion of Greenland’s airports. Given the island’s GDP is only about $3 billion, Danish and American officials raised concerns that Chinese completion of the roughly $550 million project would grant Beijing an outsized influence. Chinese investments in the neglected infrastructure of the island could also potentially jeopardize a U.S. military installation at Thule, an air base which houses systems for space monitoring and early warning of ballistic missiles. A foreign affairs spokesman for one of Denmark’s governing parties commented that “we don’t want a communist dictatorship in our own backyard.” As a result of this pressure, CCCC withdrew its bid in June 2019.

About This Incident

Threat Actors: China

Incident Metadata

Date: Sept. 2018
Country: Denmark