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By Thomas L. Friedman
Opinion Columnist
The actors at the end of the night had a day in the box with Donald Trump’s reflexes in his management taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal. Hahahahahaha! This Trump, such a funny guy, you never know what will come out of his mouth next. Don’t pay attention. You know him, he’ll just say any other scandalous 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.
He spent a few days after Trump’s comments for this joke began to circulate among specialists in China:
Question: “How does Xi Jinping feel when Trump talks about the capture of Greenland and the Panama Canal?”
Answer: “Hunger” – For Taiwan.
Trump’s comments are reckless stupidity beyond belief. Imagine what it is when his selection for the ambassador to Beijing, David lost, took his position and, in reaction to a competitive act from China to Taiwan, will go to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deposit a demonstration. What will the ministry say?
Presumably something like: “You come in here to protest our actions to reunite with Taiwan when your president is threatening to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal by force? We believe Taiwan is an integral part of China — a belief that while you do not share it, you acknowledged in the 1972 Shanghai Communiqué. What is your connection to Greenland? The fact that Donald Trump Jr. went there on vacation once? Tell your president that China and Russia have as much a claim to Greenland as America does.’’
Vladimir Putin actually thinks about the same. How will the United States say that by invading Ukraine, violated foreign legislation and criteria when entering the territory of some other nation, while Trump reflects on the seizure of Greenland and forcing American sovereignty to the Panama Canal by force? The territory of Ukraine once component of Russia’s mother, as well as Crimea, which Putin has already completely assumed.
No of Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told CNBC on Thursday that Russia “analyzes the rhetoric of those issues that came out of Washington here with wonderful interest. “
Some may think Trump’s remarks on taking Greenland and the Panama Canal are just a joke from an attention-seeking leader with no filter. They are not a joke. They are a prescription for chaos. They have already done more damage than people realize. If Trump persists with them, the joke will be entirely on us and on the world order we established after World War II.
Thomas L. Friedman is the columnist of foreign affairs opinion. He joined the newspaper in 1981 and won 3 Pulitzer Awards. It is that of seven pounds, adding “from Beirut to Jerusalem”, who won the National Book Award. @Tomfriedman • Facebook
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