Today, China is one of the non-Arctic Asian countries that is most actively interested in the Arctic. The particular interest of China is the Russian Arctic territories, which are extremely rich in resources. However, despite the fact that China and Russia are strategic partners in international politics as a whole, the presence of China and other non-Arctic countries in the Arctic, as a traditional region of Russia's national interests, causes the Russian leadership some concerns. The purpose of this article is to determine the main interests of China in the Arctic and to identify the main problem areas of cooperation between China and Russia in the region. The article discusses the main stages of the formation of the Chinese Arctic strategy, determines the motives of China's presence in the region, assesses the prospects for the implementation of the project “Polar Silk Road”, and, finally, determines the compliance of this project with Russian national interests. As a result, the authors came to the conclusion that at this stage Russia and China, despite the presence of common projects in the Arctic in the field of energy and science, have certain contradictions and disagreements regarding the prospects for the development of the Arctic: Russia is alarmed by China's active desire to realize its economic and geopolitical interests in the Arctic, which can lead to a complication of Russian-Chinese relations in this region.