Late-night comedians have had a field day with Donald Trump’s musings about his administration probably seizing Greenland and the Panama Canal. Hahahahahaha! That Trump — such a humorous man — you by no means know what’s going to come out of his mouth subsequent. Pay no consideration. You realize him, he’ll simply say one thing else outrageous tomorrow!
Nicely, I’ll inform you who I’m sure is paying consideration: President Xi Jinping of China. If the U.S. president can determine that he needs to grab Greenland and explicitly refuses to rule out using pressure to take action, that is sort of a big permission slip for China to grab Taiwan, which has robust emotional, historic, linguistic and nationwide connections to mainland China.
It took just a few days after Trump’s remarks for this joke to begin circulating amongst China specialists:
Query: “What does Xi Jinping really feel when Trump begins speaking about taking Greenland and the Panama Canal?”
Reply: “Hungry” — for Taiwan.
Trump’s remarks are reckless stupidity past perception. Think about what occurs when his selection for ambassador to Beijing, David Perdue, takes up his put up and, in response to some aggressive act by China towards Taiwan, goes to the Chinese language Overseas Ministry to lodge a protest. What is going to the ministry say?
Presumably one thing like: “You are available right here to protest our actions to reunite with Taiwan when your president is threatening to grab Greenland and the Panama Canal by pressure? We consider Taiwan is an integral a part of China — a perception that whereas you don’t share it, you acknowledged within the 1972 Shanghai Communiqué. What’s your connection to Greenland? The truth that Donald Trump Jr. went there on vacation once? Inform your president that China and Russia have as a lot a declare to Greenland as America does.’’
Vladimir Putin is definitely pondering the identical factor. How does America get off telling him that by invading Ukraine he has violated worldwide legal guidelines and norms by seizing the territory of one other nation, whereas Trump muses about seizing Greenland and forcibly reimposing U.S. sovereignty over the Panama Canal? Ukraine’s territory was once part of Mother Russia, as was Crimea, which Putin has already absolutely taken again.
No marvel Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told CNBC on Thursday that Russia is “watching the rhetoric on these subjects popping out of Washington with nice curiosity.”
Some might imagine Trump’s remarks on taking Greenland and the Panama Canal are only a joke from an attention-seeking chief with no filter. They aren’t a joke. They’re a prescription for chaos. They’ve already performed extra injury than folks notice. If Trump persists with them, the joke shall be completely on us and on the world order we established after World Warfare II.
