Trump's reckless Greenland comments no joke to Taiwan [View all]

By Thomas L. Friedman / The New York Times

Late-night comedians have had a field day with Donald Trump’s musings about his administration possibly seizing Greenland and the Panama Canal. Hahahahahaha! That Trump — such a funny guy — you never know what will come out of his mouth next. Pay no attention. You know him, he’ll just say something else outrageous tomorrow!

Well, I’ll tell you who I am certain is paying attention: President Xi Jinping of China. If the U.S. president can decide that he wants to seize Greenland and explicitly refuses to rule out the use of force to do so, that is like a giant permission slip for China to seize Taiwan, which has strong emotional, historical, linguistic and national connections to mainland China.

It took only a few days after Trump’s remarks for this joke to start circulating among China specialists:

Question: “What does Xi Jinping feel when Trump starts talking about taking Greenland and the Panama Canal?”

Answer: “Hungry” — for Taiwan.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/friedman-trumps-reckless-greenland-comments-no-joke-to-taiwan/