Abstract:

Since the 1970s, increasing attention has been paid to subnational actors such as local government and cities in studies of international system and national foreign policy, and various theories related to city diplomacy have been proposed. Local government participates in national science diplomacy in four primary ways: twinned cities, intercity international organizations, foreign direct exchanges between cities, and city collaboration platforms. The representative event of polar science diplomacy was the conclusion of the Antarctic Treaty by 12 participating countries, which included the United States of America and the Soviet Union, during the International Geophysical Year. Subsequently, starting from nothing, China has achieved historic advances in its polar activities on small–large through polar science diplomacy. Shanghai is a gateway city via which China communicates with the Arctic and Antarctic, and it has been promoting China’s polar science diplomacy since the 1980s. The status of Shanghai as a national polar gateway city developed during the 1980s–1990s, and its foreign direct exchanges comprised mainly personnel visits. Since the beginning of 21st century, Shanghai has become an Asian polar gateway city and the forms of foreign direct exchanges have become increasingly diverse. During this transformative process, Shanghai experienced problems concerning the lack of top-level design, single form of participation and low level of foreign direct exchanges. Taking the opportunity presented by the “Fourteenth Five-Year Plan” and the preparation for the “Fifth International Polar Year”, Shanghai could further promote China’s polar science diplomacy through measures such as establishing polar twinned cities and building polar city collaboration platforms.

Key words: Shanghai, China, polar regions, science diplomacy