China has more recently been looking at opening up a "Polar Silk Road" route that travels north of China and through Arctic waters to get to Europe:
https://www.ft.com/content/a53ebabc-0268-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5
If such a route were to be developed and be significantly used by China, it could reduce the leverage of India's sea denial strategy for potentially blockading Chinese shipping through the Indian ocean. It could also increase Russian fears of Chinese encroachment in the long run, as Russia also has designs on the resources of the Arctic, including particularly oil & gas resources.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-cold-war-china-declares-itself-a-near-arctic-state-1516965315?mod=fox_australian
The Polar route would really only be open during the summer months though, and would be frozen during the winter.
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