By Thomas L. Friedman
Late-night humorists have had a heyday with Donald Trump’s speculations about potentially annexing Greenland and the Panama Canal. Hahahahahaha! That Trump — a real comedian — you never know what he’ll come up with next. Don’t take it seriously. You know him; he’s bound to say something equally shocking tomorrow!
Well, I can tell you who I am confident is paying attention: President Xi Jinping of China. If the U.S. president thinks he can annex Greenland and makes it clear he won’t rule out using force, that’s like handing a giant permission slip to China to claim Taiwan, which has deep emotional, historical, linguistic, and national ties to mainland China.
It took only a few days after Trump’s comments for this joke to start circulating among experts on China:
Question: “What does Xi Jinping think when Trump talks about acquiring Greenland and the Panama Canal?”
Answer: “Hungry” — for Taiwan.
Trump’s comments are an astonishing level of reckless ignorance. Consider what happens when his nominee for ambassador to Beijing, David Perdue, starts his role and, faced with an aggressive move by China towards Taiwan, visits the Chinese Foreign Ministry to raise a complaint. How will the ministry react?
They’ll probably respond with something like: “You come here to complain about our actions to reunite with Taiwan when your president is talking about using force to take Greenland and the Panama Canal? We maintain that Taiwan is a core part of China — a view that, while you may not share, you recognized in the 1972 Shanghai Communiqué. What’s your affiliation with Greenland? That Donald Trump Jr. vacationed there once? Inform your president that both China and Russia have as much claim to Greenland as the United States does.’’
Vladimir Putin is likely contemplating the same issue. How can America accuse him of breaching international laws and norms by invading Ukraine to annex another country’s territory while Trump fantasizes about taking Greenland and forcibly reinstating U.S. control over the Panama Canal? Ukraine’s land was once part of Mother Russia, as was Crimea, which Putin has already completely reclaimed.
No wonder Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, stated to CNBC on Thursday that Russia is “monitoring the rhetoric on these issues coming from Washington with considerable interest.”
Some might dismiss Trump’s comments regarding Greenland and the Panama Canal as mere jokes from a leader seeking attention who lacks a filter. They are not jokes. They are a path to chaos. They have already caused more harm than many recognize. If Trump continues down this road, the joke will be on us and the global order we established after World War II.
