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As the melting of Arctic Sea ice because of global warming creates new shipping routes and energy resources, the post-Cold War peace and stability of the Arctic has been shattered. It has once again become a strategic location for multinational rivalries, attracting widespread attention in international geopolitical circles. Compared to other regions of the world, studying the Arctic region from a Western geopolitical perspective is at the forefront of international research. Although China, as a near-Arctic country, has developed geopolitical research on the Arctic in response to its practical needs, domestic research in this field started late, with room for improvement in its breadth and depth. Therefore, 98 papers in the Web of Science core database that are highly relevant to Arctic geopolitics are selected as the object of the study. Through a literature review, we summarize the development of Arctic research from a Western geopolitical perspective, and the shift in perspective and hot topics; we adopt a forward-looking perspective of future research development trends to provide reference for innovative research in this field in China. The results reveal the following: (1) Research on the geopolitics of the Arctic has been conducted in a wide range of fields and topics in Western academia, with some correlation among the topics, although the links among the studies are not strong, and the research scale generally shows a fluctuating growth trend. (2) The research content, composed of six major fields (boundary and territorial politics, Arctic shipping routes, Arctic resource development, Arctic geo-strategy, Arctic security and governance, and indigenous population issues), focus on politics and economics but is lack of cultural research. (3) Under the influence of aesthetic humanism and the "cultural and institutional turn," the trend in the cross-fertilization of geopolitical, geo-economic, and geo-cultural perspectives has increasingly become more obvious. (4) Research on the Arctic from a geopolitical perspective has been relatively fruitful, although there remain shortcomings in the depth of theoretical research, breadth of research scale, diversity of research methods, and geo-economic and geo-cultural research paradigms, which require further development. Future research will generate new ideas and directions in immaterial areas such as theoretical framework studies, interdisciplinary studies, and emotional culture, and will focus more on the role of multiple actors, such as indigenous peoples and NGOs, in geopolitical knowledge production and power competition.

As the melting of Arctic Sea ice because of global warming creates new shipping routes and energy resources, the post-Cold War peace and stability of the Arctic has been shattered. It has once again become a strategic location for multinational rivalries, attracting widespread attention in international geopolitical circles. Compared to other regions of the world, studying the Arctic region from a Western geopolitical perspective is at the forefront of international research. Although China, as a near-Arctic country, has developed geopolitical research on the Arctic in response to its practical needs, domestic research in this field started late, with room for improvement in its breadth and depth. Therefore, 98 papers in the Web of Science core database that are highly relevant to Arctic geopolitics are selected as the object of the study. Through a literature review, we summarize the development of Arctic research from a Western geopolitical perspective, and the shift in perspective and hot topics; we adopt a forward-looking perspective of future research development trends to provide reference for innovative research in this field in China. The results reveal the following: (1) Research on the geopolitics of the Arctic has been conducted in a wide range of fields and topics in Western academia, with some correlation among the topics, although the links among the studies are not strong, and the research scale generally shows a fluctuating growth trend. (2) The research content, composed of six major fields (boundary and territorial politics, Arctic shipping routes, Arctic resource development, Arctic geo-strategy, Arctic security and governance, and indigenous population issues), focus on politics and economics but is lack of cultural research. (3) Under the influence of aesthetic humanism and the "cultural and institutional turn," the trend in the cross-fertilization of geopolitical, geo-economic, and geo-cultural perspectives has increasingly become more obvious. (4) Research on the Arctic from a geopolitical perspective has been relatively fruitful, although there remain shortcomings in the depth of theoretical research, breadth of research scale, diversity of research methods, and geo-economic and geo-cultural research paradigms, which require further development. Future research will generate new ideas and directions in immaterial areas such as theoretical framework studies, interdisciplinary studies, and emotional culture, and will focus more on the role of multiple actors, such as indigenous peoples and NGOs, in geopolitical knowledge production and power competition.

Studies of historical climate and environment changes in the eastern monsoonal region of China have made great progress in recent years. However, progressively studies indicate that the processes of climate and environment changes during the last 2000 years differed greatly in different regions. This is especially the case among studies based only on single-site records, possibly because of different materials, proxy indicators, dating accuracy, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct comprehensive and integrated analyses of regional climate and environment changes at larger spatial scales. Here, multiple climate proxy records selected from 16 sites in southeastern China (i.e., approximately east of 105° E and south of 30° N) were used to synthesize and reconstruct the temperature and precipitation changes over the past 2000 years, and the possible forcing mechanisms behind these changes were explored. The results indicate that the integrated temperature sequence in the study region is quite comparable to the reconstructions for the entirety of China, eastern China, and the Northern Hemisphere. Several typical characteristic climate periods on centennial timescales, such as the Dark Age Cold Period, the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age, and the modern warm period of the 20th century, were well revealed in the present reconstruction. The integrated precipitation sequence shows that the dry and wet phases in southeastern China have changed significantly during the past 2000 years. Specifically, precipitation was relatively higher during the Medieval Warm Period, but it was relatively lower during the Little Ice Age (i.e., less precipitation occurred in the former part of the Little Ice Age and more precipitation occurred during the latter part). In general, the synthesized temperature and precipitation changes in southeastern China had relatively diverse hydrothermal combinations during the last 2000 years. However, it is noteworthy that the integrated precipitation sequence in southeastern China is weakly comparable to the sequence in northern China, reflecting great regional differences in historical precipitation changes. Thus, the forcing mechanisms might differ greatly from south to north in the monsoonal region of eastern China. Furthermore, the results suggest that large-scale atmosphere–ocean interactions, volcanic activities, and changes in solar radiation could have had significant effects on the climate and environment changes in southeastern China during the last 2000 years.

Studies of historical climate and environment changes in the eastern monsoonal region of China have made great progress in recent years. However, progressively studies indicate that the processes of climate and environment changes during the last 2000 years differed greatly in different regions. This is especially the case among studies based only on single-site records, possibly because of different materials, proxy indicators, dating accuracy, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct comprehensive and integrated analyses of regional climate and environment changes at larger spatial scales. Here, multiple climate proxy records selected from 16 sites in southeastern China (i.e., approximately east of 105° E and south of 30° N) were used to synthesize and reconstruct the temperature and precipitation changes over the past 2000 years, and the possible forcing mechanisms behind these changes were explored. The results indicate that the integrated temperature sequence in the study region is quite comparable to the reconstructions for the entirety of China, eastern China, and the Northern Hemisphere. Several typical characteristic climate periods on centennial timescales, such as the Dark Age Cold Period, the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age, and the modern warm period of the 20th century, were well revealed in the present reconstruction. The integrated precipitation sequence shows that the dry and wet phases in southeastern China have changed significantly during the past 2000 years. Specifically, precipitation was relatively higher during the Medieval Warm Period, but it was relatively lower during the Little Ice Age (i.e., less precipitation occurred in the former part of the Little Ice Age and more precipitation occurred during the latter part). In general, the synthesized temperature and precipitation changes in southeastern China had relatively diverse hydrothermal combinations during the last 2000 years. However, it is noteworthy that the integrated precipitation sequence in southeastern China is weakly comparable to the sequence in northern China, reflecting great regional differences in historical precipitation changes. Thus, the forcing mechanisms might differ greatly from south to north in the monsoonal region of eastern China. Furthermore, the results suggest that large-scale atmosphere–ocean interactions, volcanic activities, and changes in solar radiation could have had significant effects on the climate and environment changes in southeastern China during the last 2000 years.