; and (C) conducted the largest military exercise since the 1980s, Vostok 2018, which included— (i) 300,000 troops; (ii) 1,000 aircraft; (iii) 80 ships; (iv) 36,000 vehicles; and (v) notably, 3,200 Chinese troops, 30 Chinese rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, and 900 Chinese tanks. (5) The Government of the People's Republic of China— (A) released, in January 2018, its new Arctic Strategy, the Polar Silk Road, in which it declares itself as a near-Arctic state , even though its nearest territory to the Arctic is 900 miles away; (B) has publicly stated that it seeks to expand its Belt and Road Initiative to the Arctic region, including current investment in the natural gas fields in the Yamal Peninsula in Russia, rare-earth element mines in Greenland, and the real estate, alternative energy, and fisheries in Iceland; and (C) has shown great interest in expanding its Arctic presence, including through— (i) the operation of research vessels in the region; (ii) the recent construction of the Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon II, the only polar research boat vessel in the world that can break ice while going forward or backward; (iii) a freedom of navigation operation in the Aleutian Islands in 2015