After Hormuz, China looks to the promise – and peril – of the Arctic’s ‘ice silk road’

China’s Sea Legend has launched a regular service through the Arctic’s northern sea route, suggesting it could be an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz and Suez canal. Photograph: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy

When Marco Rubio suggested that the world should look to new shipping lanes to bypass the logjammed strait of Hormuz, it’s unlikely he had the Arctic’s northern sea route in mind.

And yet in recent months the promise of this 5,500km channel – cleaved through frozen seas by nuclear-powered icebreakers and illuminated by a sun that never dips below the Arctic horizon – has grown.