China is, for the first time since it signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1983, hosting the 40th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting which opened in Beijing on May 22, 2017.  

(Comment: China has 4 research stations on Antarctica and is building another in the Ross Sea region. Its Ice-breaker 'Xue Long' sails to the Antarctica every year to conduct research. Since 2015, CChina has deployed a fixed wing aircraft for operations there. China started to fish for Krill in the Southern Ocean in 2009 since when the size of its fishing fleet has grown).