Chinese flotilla in the Bering Strait: In mid-August, five Chinese research vessels operated near Alaska for the first time - alerting the US Navy and US Coast Guard.

The Bering Strait is barely 70 kilometres wide - between the almost uninhabited Russian Naukan and the American Wales in Alaska, which has a small airfield and the huts of the local Native community. In the middle of this strait lie the Diomedes Islands: The western Great Diomedes, which belongs to Russia, is separated from the Lesser Diomedes, which already belongs to Alaska, by only around two kilometres of ice sheet. The Bering Sea extends to the south and the Chukchi Sea to the north.

It was precisely in this geographically and geopolitically sensitive area that a Chinese flotilla appeared in mid-August - more numerous than ever before. The convoy was led by the first icebreaker built entirely in China Xue Long 2("Snow Dragon", 132 metres, 14,300 tonnes, ice class 3), the flagship of the still young Chinese ice fleet. It was accompanied by a Soviet ice tug, a classic research vessel with a deep-diving capsule and the two new Arctic research platforms Ji Di and Tan Suo San Haoboth of whom have only been in service for a few months.

The US Coast Guard had recently increased its surveillance capacities in North Alaska - both on the water and in the air. It has also deployed the newly commissioned 59th Fast Response Cutter Earl Cunningham and the icebreaker Storis into the waters of the 49th US state to closely monitor Chinese activities in the Bering Strait.