China hits back at Trump’s Greenland remark, says its Arctic activities legal
China said Monday that the United States shouldn’t use other countries as a “pretext” to pursue its interests in Greenland and said that its activities in the Arctic comply with international law.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from taking it over, adding that he’d rather “make a deal” for the territory, “but one way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland.”
In response to Trump’s statements, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said “China’s activities in the Arctic are aimed at promoting peace, stability, and sustainable development in the region and are in accordance with international law.”
“The rights and freedoms of all countries to conduct activities in the Arctic in accordance with the law should be fully respected,” Mao said, without mentioning Greenland directly. “The U.S. should not pursue its own interests by using other countries as a pretext.”
She said that “the Arctic concerns the overall interests of the international community.”
For context, China in 2018 declared itself a “near-Arctic state” in an effort to gain more influence in the region. Beijing has also announced plans to build a “Polar Silk Road”, which falls under the wider Belt and Road initiative, an investment drive focused on trade-boosting infrastructure projects along the path of the ancient silk road from China to Europe and a second route linking China by sea to Southeast Asia and east Africa.
