A wealthy Chinese tycoon is trying to buy a huge tract of land in north-east Iceland for a $100 million eco-tourism project, a luxury hotel and eco-resort that will include a golf course.
The 55-year Huang Nubo, of China is a real estate investor a devoted mountaineer, and a Communist Party insider. He has made a provisional deal to acquire 300 Sq Km (about 155 Sq M) of Icelandic territory at a whooping offer of a billion krona (£5.4m: $8.8m). The land acquired is one quarter the size of Hong Kong.
Mr. Huang is the chairman of the Zhongkun investment group, and is also reported to have worked as a minister in the Chinese Central Propaganda Department and Ministry of Construction. Forbes ranked Huang as China’s 161st richest man in 2010, with a net worth of $890 million. On the other side of the story, the tycoon describes himself as a poet, who writes under the pseudonym Luoying. People close to him feel his interest in Iceland is motivated by his love of nature.
With this acquisition China's ambitious mercantile agenda has the right thrust to move forward. Beijing is always looking for ways to expand trade links around the world. Iceland occupies a strategically important location between Europe and North America that could potentially function as a hub for Asian cargo movement, should climate change open Arctic waters to shipping.
Iceland and China have already discussed co-operating on Arctic shipping, because China wants to shift the goods from its factories via that route to Europe and the US, across the North Pole as Arctic ice recedes.
The Icelandic officials have welcomed the purchase and the further 20bn krona, for developing the infrastructure on the proposed site. The Iceland Review Online reported last week that Huang signed a deal with land owners including the Icelandic government last Wednesday, and that the deal was dependent on approval by both China and Iceland.
Ever since the deal was on, there has been wide speculation across the globe especially after the recent modernisation of the Chinese armed forces, which sees it as an alternate super Power. Critics on the plan fear it could be used by China to gain a strategic foothold in Iceland. This hold could be for international trade ambitions or are there any hidden agenda behind the scenes is yet to be determined.
But in the international trade ambition theory, China is not alone, other Arctic nations, including Russia and Norway, have been investigating the possibility of new trading routes opening up as the ice recedes.
