Friday, January 30, 2026

A Chinese Diplomat Speaks Out… See the Difference!

 

On Australia’s plan to re-acquire the Port of Darwin…China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, recently described Australia’s plan to re-acquire the Port of Darwin as unwise and problematic.

Xiao publicly criticised Canberra for seeking to take back the port now that it has become profitable, after leasing it out when it was unprofitable. He described this move as “ethically questionable” and “not the way to do business.”

He underscored that the Chinese company Landbridge had obtained its 99-year lease through proper market processes and had since invested substantially in the port’s infrastructure. In his view, such investment should be respected rather than reversed.

Xiao suggested that if Australia were to forcibly take back control of the port, China would feel obliged to take “measures to protect the Chinese company’s interests.” While he did not specify what those measures might be, he implied they could carry economic consequences or have broader implications for bilateral trade and investment relations.

He further argued that altering the agreement could affect “substantive investment, cooperation, and trade” by Chinese companies in the region—reflecting Beijing’s view that such a move could deter future foreign investment.

Xiao’s comments form part of the broader tensions between Canberra and Beijing over strategic infrastructure, foreign investment, and national security. While the Australian government maintains that regaining control of the Port of Darwin is in the national interest, China views any move to unwind the lease as destabilising commercial norms and bilateral relations.


On Chinese naval movements near Australian waters…
In an earlier interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Hobart, Xiao described China’s naval deployments and drills near Australia as “normal” activities for a major power—routine training operations rather than a message or threat directed at Australia. He urged Australians not to over-interpret or misinterpret China’s military movements in the region.

He also emphasised that there was “no reason” for China to threaten Australia, even in the context of these naval activities. (You want to sink ships of your biggest trading partners? Come on!)

Coming of age…

I used to joke about the former ambassador, who could hardly string together a proper sentence in English. Xiao, on the other hand, represents a new generation of Chinese diplomats—confident, articulate in English, and carrying real gravitas. His demeanour exudes friendliness. Compared with the ambassadors dispatched by Trump around the world, the contrast is immediately obvious. (The one for Singapore literally asks for alms!)

End

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Thursday, January 29, 2026

Xi’s “Purge” of China’s Military - Zeekr and Zika


China's Zeekr
The removal of Zhang Youxia (张又侠), Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and Liu Zhenli (刘振立), also a CMC member and Chief of Staff, a few days ago has sent shockwaves around the world. They have been placed under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law,” a euphemism for corruption or political disloyalty.

Is this a deep leadership restructuring taking place in China, or something else?

Since Xi became CMC Chairman in 2012, he has pushed a major anti-corruption drive into the military, restructuring its leadership to ensure loyalty and strengthen centralised control. In recent years, particularly from 2023 to the present, the pace and prominence of removals have accelerated, including the unprecedented fall of sitting CMC vice chairmen and other top commanders.

A couple of months ago — in October last year — He Weidong (卫东) became the first sitting CMC Vice Chairman to be removed since the Cultural Revolution era. Removed together with him was Miao Hua (), Director of the CMC Political Work Department, who was widely regarded as a Xi loyalist. Also removed at the same time were seven other full generals:

  1. He Hongjun (何宏), Executive Deputy Director, CMC Political Work Department
  2. Wang Xiubin (王秀斌), Executive Deputy Director, CMC Joint Operations Command Center
  3. Lin Xiangyang (林向阳), Commander, Eastern Theater Command
  4. Qin Shutong (树桐), Political Commissar (Army)
  5. Yuan Huazhi (华智), Political Commissar (Navy)
  6. Wang Houbin (王厚斌), Commander, Rocket Force
  7. Wang Chunning (王春宁), Commander, People’s Armed Police

Defence Minister and former Rocket Force commander Wei Fenghe (凤和) was removed in 2024, while in 2023 Li Shangfu (李尚福), Minister of National Defense, was purged.

Earlier casualties included Liu Zheng (), former Deputy Director of the PLA General Logistics Department; Li Zuocheng (李作成), the retired Chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department; and Li Yuchao (李玉超), former Commander of the Rocket Force.

All were three-star full generals.

Before Xi, the PLA had largely been a law unto itself, especially from the 1990s to the early 2010s. Although the PLA formally answered to the Party, in practice senior generals ran powerful fiefdoms. Civilian leaders such as Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao often lacked either the authority or the will to discipline top officers. Promotions were heavily influenced by patronage networks rather than professional merit. This gave rise to what many Chinese insiders later described as 军中山头林立 — mountains within the military, each with its own lord.

Corruption was systemic. “Buying ranks” was an open secret. Under generals Xu Caihou (徐才厚) and Guo Boxiong (郭伯雄) — both CMC vice chairmen — promotions to major general, lieutenant general, and full general were widely believed to be for sale. Key posts in logistics, armaments, and personnel became cash cows. Officers paid bribes to secure promotions, avoid audits, or obtain lucrative postings. Xu and Guo were the gatekeepers, and both fell between 2014 and 2015.

Xi later lamented that corruption had reached a level that “threatened the survival of the Party and the army.”

The PLA also ran businesses. Until the late 1990s and early 2000s, PLA units owned hotels, real estate, and trading companies. Officers blurred the lines between national defence and personal enrichment. Although Jiang formally ordered the PLA out of business in 1998, the networks and habits remained.

Xi did three things his predecessors did not dare to do fully:

    (a) Took down CMC vice chairmen

  • Xu Caihou
  • Guo Boxiong
  • He Weidong, Zhang Youxia

    This shattered the belief that “CMC vice chairmen are untouchable.”

    (b) Broke service-based power blocs

  • Rocket Force
  • Equipment Development Department
  • Political Work Department

     The recent purges show that Xi is still dismantling entrenched networks, even among his own appointees. 

    (c) Centralised loyalty to one authority

  • Loyalty is no longer to “the Party” in an abstract sense
  • It is explicitly to Xi as CMC Chairman
Outcome...
The system is certainly cleaner than before. However, corruption may simply have shifted from the open buying of ranks to more subtle forms. In the interim, fear has replaced impunity. Professionalisation has improved, but initially at the cost of initiative, candour, and internal trust.

Xi genuinely believes that corruption threatens China’s war-fighting ability. If he is true to his mission, these temporary hiccups will disappear in due course.

Poor Messaging…

Unfortunately, Beijing has been poor at explaining Xi’s transformation effort to the outside world.

          1. Silence looks like instability
China’s instinct is secrecy, but externally this backfires. Senior generals disappear, defence  ministers vanish without explanation, and CMC vice chairmen fall with boilerplate language.

 

To outsiders, this does not look like reform — it looks like elite chaos or factional warfare.

 

Western analysts fill the vacuum with the most damaging interpretations:

·         “The PLA is hollowed out”

·         “Xi doesn’t trust his own generals”

·         “China’s military is unready for war”

 

Beijing’s refusal to engage allows these narratives to harden.


2. Anti-corruption without benchmarks sounds arbitrary
“Serious violations of discipline and law” tells the world nothing. Without clear standards or named offences, it appears to be selective punishment rather than systemic clean-up. Internally, cadres may understand the signals; externally, it feels opaque and personalistic.

            3. The PLA is still treated as a sacred black box

           The CPC continues to communicate as if:

·         Military affairs are nobody else’s business

·         Foreign perceptions do not matter


That mindset worked when China was inward-looking. It does not work when China is a near-peer military power, operating globally and under constant strategic scrutiny.


What Could Have Been Done?
The framing should have shifted from PURGE to PROFESSIONALISATION.

Standards, operational competence, and key command rotations to prevent fiefdoms should have been emphasised. “We are building a modern, rules-based military, not a loyalty club” is the kind of language people understand. Due process must be observed, and outcomes should not be conveyed through leaks, rumours, or silence.

At present, every purge reinforces the idea that if Xi goes, the system collapses. Reforms should be institutionalised — promotion criteria codified, command regulations published, and collective CMC decision-making, even if symbolic, emphasised.

The irony is this: Xi may be carrying out the most radical PLA transformation since Mao, yet because of how it is communicated, the world interprets it as paranoia, instability, and personal insecurity.

However, I believe Xi is now confident enough to transform the PLA without the baggage of the old guards. Modern warfare requires quality young bloods, which China has plenty. 

Regardless, I have great faith in Xi. Let us help him explain his good intentions to the world.

End

 

Postscript…
Friends may be wondering why I have chosen a picture of Zeekr – a Chinese car – to introduce this article. Zeekr (pronounced Jí kè), which means “Extreme Krypton,” is a premium electric vehicle brand owned by Geely Automobile Holdings, and it is known for its high performance. Yet the name Zeekr is faintly unsettling. Doesn’t it sound rather like Zika, the mosquito-borne virus infamous for causing severe birth defects when expectant mothers are infected?

A month or so ago, while I was in Shanghai, I visited a Pien Tze Huang (片仔癀) franchise outlet to buy a facial lotion that I thought would be suitable for my wife. When I returned, she unpacked the box and tried to make sense of the instructions. She asked whether I trusted it. I could hardly blame her. The English translation was so Mickey-mousy that few people – especially those who are unfamiliar with the depth and sophistication of traditional Chinese medical formulations – would dare to use the product. And yet Pien Tze Huang has a pedigree spanning nearly 500 years, dating back to the Ming Dynasty, and occupies a venerable place in traditional Chinese medicine.

Fortunately, Chinese companies now appear to be paying closer attention to global sensibilities in branding. Names like BYD, rendered in Chinese as 亚迪 (pronounced Bǐyàdí), travel far more easily across languages and cultures. Is this, perhaps, a quiet form of reverse engineering in product naming?

In much the same way, Xi would do well to be more conscious of how China is viewed by the outside world.

 

Monday, January 26, 2026

You Win Some, Thanks to a Delusional TACO

 

Infantility of the Lowest Kind
Can you imagine the President of the United States of America writing the following to the prime minister of another country?

“Dear Jonas:

Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America…


President DJT”

This was written on January 18. “Jonas” is Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of Norway. And of course, DJT needs no introduction—also known, rather fittingly, as TACO.

Trump blames Norway for “not giving” him the Nobel Peace Prize, claims he “stopped 8 wars PLUS,” and announces that he no longer feels obliged to “think purely of Peace.” This idiot does not even know— or chooses not to know—that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by an independent committee, not by the Norwegian government.

His message to Støre goes on:


“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents—it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago. But we had boats landing there also.

I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now NATO should do something for the United States.

 

The world is not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland.

Thank you!”

Støre replied calmly, stressing that Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and that Norway fully supports Danish sovereignty over the island. Norway does not claim Greenland, nor has it ever done so.

(Apparently, Støre and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb had already reached out to Trump to lower tensions and even proposed a three-way call—before Trump linked the Nobel Prize to Greenland policy.)

In our Oriental culture, such behaviour would be described plainly: infantile.

A Podcast That Nailed Trump Perfectly

I happened upon a podcast clip on TikTok. I don’t know who the podcaster was, but it remains one of the best commentaries on Trump I have ever heard:

 

“Every single sentence uttered from his little slimy mouth was either something he came up with on the spot or a lie that was still stuck in the part of his brain that hasn’t atrophied yet.

 

Every time you assume this man has finally reached the absolute bottom of human intelligence, he arrives with a shovel and a smile saying, ‘No, I can go lower.’

As his dementia progresses and the pressure from the Epstein case builds, Trump keeps unlocking new tiers of verbal incoherence. You almost—almost—have to admire him.

 

We’re watching a geriatric patient wandering through a geopolitical hallucination on stage, in front of the whole world, making assertions so profoundly detached from reality that it would take a child mere seconds to fact-check and debunk.

 

And yet tens of millions of Americans look at this synaptic meltdown—this confused, sweating elderly man shouting at the clouds—and think: ‘This is the best thing that could have happened to our country.’

 

This man is the peak of evolution—if we believed in evolution.

 

Give him the nuclear codes.

 

To the Americans who haven’t yet lost their sanity, I am so sorry. I hope with every fibre of my being that your democracy survives this madman. If it doesn’t, we are all f**ked.”

Brutal. Accurate.

Trump at Davos: Fantasy Economics Meets Delusion

Below are some of the more spectacular claims Trump made in his recent World Economic Forum Special Address:

 

“…our economy is booming. Growth is exploding, productivity is surging, investment is soaring, incomes are rising, inflation has been defeated, and the United States is experiencing the fastest and most dramatic economic turnaround in history.”

He continued:

 

“Over the past three months, core inflation has been just 1.6%, and fourth-quarter growth is projected at 5.4%. Since the election, the stock market has hit 52 all-time highs, adding trillions to retirement accounts.”

He claimed $18 trillion—soon $20 trillion—of investment commitments, declared the U.S. the “economic engine of the planet,” and sneered that Europe is ‘not heading in the right direction’ due to failed ideas on migration, spending, and trade.

He boasted of tariffs, slashed deficits, soaring energy output, surging steel production, Venezuelan oil deals, falling gasoline prices, and a nuclear renaissance with “safe and competitive” reactors.

On Greenland (and Finland… somehow)

“It’s hard to call it land—it’s a big piece of ice—but it plays a strategic role in world protection… After World War II, we returned Greenland to Denmark; now we are asking for it back. I will not use force, but I want it for world defense.”

This alone should qualify as a case study in historical ignorance.

He then claimed NATO members now pay 5% of GDP (they do not), while repeating his favourite line:


“We defend you; you didn’t pay.”


Trade, Tariffs, and Sinophobia
Trump claimed tariffs cut the U.S. trade deficit by 77%, promised drug prices would fall by up to 90%, and accused Europe of freeloading.

Without naming him, Trump also took clear aim at Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, criticising U.S. security partners who allow Chinese EVs and industrial goods into their markets.

Carney’s recent China visit resulted in a deal reducing Canada’s 100% tariff on Chinese EVs to around 6.1%, allowing up to 49,000 Chinese EVs annually, in exchange for China lowering tariffs on Canadian exports like canola and food products.

Carney called it an opportunity for Canada’s auto sector and a step toward diversified trade.

But Sinophobia runs deep in Caucasian blood.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford attacked the deal as reckless, claiming it endangered Canadian jobs—and even implied Chinese EVs might pose cybersecurity risks. Evidence? None.

The U.S. Walks Away from the World

Despite years of ingratiation by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the U.S. has quit the WHO while owing approximately USD 280 million in dues.

The U.S. is withdrawing from 66 international organisations, including 31 UN-affiliated bodies—among them UNFCCC, UN Women, and UNFPA—as well as 35 non-UN organisations such as IPCC, IRENA, and the International Solar Alliance.

The U.S. has also re-withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement and is exiting UNESCO again.

Trump believes America can stand alone. His sycophants cheer wildly.

Absolutely delusional.

Europe Looks East

Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo is visiting China. Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz will soon follow. Even Argentina’s President Javier Milei, once rabidly anti-China, now wants in. All in the name of trade.

Keir Starmer has also effectively “bought his ticket to Beijing.”

He has cleared China’s proposal to build a new embassy in London – originally submitted in 2018. Although cleared by UK authorities and intelligence agencies, the project has sparked protests. Human-rights activists, diaspora groups, and British politicians alike oppose it. From politicians, it is pure hypocrisy. They are not ignorant. They are simply against China.

Trump’s Trump Riviera Project Turned Board of Peace…

For the development of Trump Riviera-post-Gaza, he is initiating a club called “Board of Peace for Gaza” to oversee post-war reconstruction and governance in the Gaza Strip following the ceasefire and peace plan Trump “helped” broker. He has named himself the Chair and amongst executive board members are Marco Rubio, Tony Blair, Jared Kushner, Ajay Banga and Steve Witkoff.

He has invited most country leaders – even Russian and Chinese – to join. Countries can become permanent members by committing USD1 billion contribution or join for a fixed term without that contribution. Ironically, there is no Palestinian representation.

Several of the key NATO countries are spurning him. They are NOT joining.

Initially touted as the Board of Peace for Gaza, it is being morphed into a platform for world peace, soon he will call it the New United Nations, with him as the life-long President.

Many of the political midgets and jesters have signed up, but I bet you, he will run out of steam and allow it to drift, after collecting some good billions for his son-in-law to throw.

The CIA’s Visible—and Invisible—Hand
Jimmy Lai was central to Hong Kong’s 2019–20 unrest, funding political campaigns and sanctions advocacy abroad. I know his CIA and MI5/MI6 connection. (His aide Mark Simon had deep U.S. political connections.)

We are told there is “no credible evidence” of CIA involvement.

Do you buy that?

Hong Kong paid dearly—billions in damage, destroyed infrastructure, ruined livelihoods, and lost lives. Yet Europe sanctions Hong Kong over Lai.

History repeats.

Remember in Indonesia, 1965–66, hundreds of thousands—perhaps over a million—were slaughtered after a failed coup. The U.S. Embassy and CIA provided lists of alleged communists and support to Suharto’s forces.

As Vincent Bevins documents in The Jakarta Method, this became a blueprint for U.S.-backed purges worldwide.

Conclusion

I personally do not believe Trump is capable of foresight. I doubt he even knew of Greenland’s existence—let alone its supposed mineral wealth—until one morning he realised it sat conveniently next to Canada; the country he openly fantasised about turning into America’s 51st state. To him, Greenland now looks like an easy slice of cake, and so the lust follows.

Much—though not all—of Europe has awakened to the reality that Trump has deserted them. They can no longer rely on someone who demands protection money like a gangster.

Talk is already emerging of a neo-NATO without the U.S., possibly including Japan, Korea, and Australia. The U.S. military-industrial complex may lose billions of easy profit, and the dollar’s dominance may erode.

Internally, Trump is turning the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement into a Gestapo-like outfit. The country is imploding!

The sooner the world sees through Trump, the sooner we may celebrate the birth of a real Peace Board.

 

End

 

8.0 Scale Earthquake: China’s Military

 

We are all shocked by the sudden arrest of General Zhang Youxia, the most senior military leader in China. His crime: “serious violations of discipline and law.” Also being detained is General Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission (CMC).

The Wall Street Journal claims that Zhang Youxia is accused of passing sensitive information about China’s nuclear weapons program to the United States, in addition to corruption allegations.

Just a couple of days earlier, on 19 January 2026, China’s top anti-corruption and party discipline bodies — the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission — announced that Gu Jun (顾军) had been placed under investigation for suspected “serious violations of Party discipline and national laws.”

Gu, 65, had led much of China’s civilian nuclear power development. He served as General Manager of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) from 2018 until his retirement in 2024. CNNC is one of China’s major state nuclear power and technology conglomerates, deeply involved in planning and building nuclear power plants. Before that, Gu spent decades in senior roles across nuclear power enterprises, including leadership positions at Sanmen Nuclear Power Company and the former State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation — both central to China’s civilian nuclear expansion.

Gu Jun oversaw China’s rapid nuclear power growth, which has included the construction and commissioning of dozens of nuclear reactors, as China pushes to diversify its energy mix and cut emissions.

Zhang visited Moscow around 20–21 November 2025, meeting Russia’s defence leadership — especially Defence Minister Andrei Belousov — to discuss deeper military cooperation and strengthening ties between the Chinese and Russian armed forces. He has not been seen publicly since this visit.

Are all these events connected? Or only some?

Narratives from Taiwan

YouTube is full of podcasts from experts in Taiwan. Almost all frame this “earthquake” as an attempt by Zhang to stage a coup against Xi. Despite Zhang being “led away” and Xi continuing to be reported publicly as China’s top leader — for example, hosting ambassadors and issuing diplomatic messages — these narratives claim Xi was about to be toppled. Some even cite inside knowledge from party elders and the military.

While much of this can be discounted, it is certain that China’s military rank-and-file must be rattled.

Zhang and Xi’s Family Ties

Zhang’s family background and his father’s historical connection with Xi Jinping’s father are well-documented.
  • Zhang Youxia was born in 1950 in Beijing. He comes from a military elite family, part of the “princeling” class (红二代 / hóng èr dài).
  • His father, General Zhang Zongxun (张宗逊), was a senior PLA commander during the Chinese Civil War and later decades, serving in significant leadership roles.
  • Zhang Zongxun and Xi Zhongxun (习仲勋), Xi Jinping’s father, were from the same region in Shaanxi Province and were comrades-in-arms against the Kuomintang in the 1940s.

Some analysts note that this father-to-father friendship was a basis for Zhang Youxia and Xi Jinping being part of the same princeling network, likely aiding Zhang’s rise within the PLA, especially after Xi assumed leadership in 2012. Some commentary even describes Zhang as someone Xi regarded like an “elder brother,” reflecting close familial-style ties beyond formal politics.

This raises the broader question: Do political calculations and discipline campaigns override old friendships at the highest levels of the CPC? History suggests they do.

What Really Caused Zhang’s Removal?

Does anyone really know? I doubt it.

There is no verified evidence that Zhang has family in the U.S. or the West. While he is certainly wealthy, there is no reason — barring blackmail or a belief that the CPC’s hold on China is collapsing — for him to “sell out” to the CIA, as some speculate.

However, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) — successor to the KGB’s First Chief Directorate — might have learned of a potential plot to oust Xi, especially given the rapid elimination of top generals in recent months. (Some are said to be Xi’s protégés!) Xi, the master strategist, appears to have neutralized the threat swiftly.

Of course, there is also a simpler explanation, rooted in Chinese history: an emperor who trusts no one, even those who are loyal or owe their rise to him, is likely to remove them pre-emptively.

Ramifications for China’s Military

Xi’s declared mission to bring Taiwan back into the fold — combined with current global geopolitical dynamics — raises questions about whether removing Zhang and Liu, the only generals with real combat experience, will deprive China of critical military leadership in a potential conflict.

My reading is that Xi recognizes modern wars are rarely won solely on the battlefields. The experience of Russia in Ukraine underscores this. Xi seems focused on installing young, capable leaders skilled in electronic warfare, integrated command systems, and advanced surveillance technology. In this regard, China is well-equipped, and many younger officers may welcome the removal of corrupt superiors.

Conclusion

China is a society of extremes — brilliance and folly, greed and benevolence, cruelty and kindness, etc. If Xi is indeed determined to shape a better tomorrow for China, these moves cannot be solely for personal benefit. They appear to reflect a larger strategy to strengthen control over the military and ensure the country’s future security.

End

 

Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Can Denmark Hold on to Greenland in the Wake of Trump’s Demand?

 

Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro has already been abducted by the US. The megalomaniac buffoon Donald Trump is boasting that the US now owns Venezuela. Given the extent to which Maduro’s security has been compromised, I would not bet on Delcy Rodríguez and her brother’s resolve to hold the country together; there is plenty of evidence to suggest that their hands were not clean.

I have always believed in physiognomy. Maduro’s eyes and moustache do reveal certain traits about the man: introversion, paranoia, lack of intelligence, and a largely self-serving nature. No wonder his security detail chose to look elsewhere when his hideout was invaded.

Trump has been shouting his intention to possess Greenland and to make Canada the US’s 51st State.

Despite all the bravado, I suspect Denmark will capitulate to his demand.

Geographically, the distance between Denmark and Greenland’s east coast is about 3,000 km, whereas the east–west width of Denmark itself is only about 450 km!

History says it all…
Denmark was invaded by Nazi Germany on 9 April 1940 and capitulated the same day, within about six hours of the invasion beginning. Fortunately, it was allowed to retain its government, parliament, and king, and control over much of its internal administration.

(Danish resistance did grow later in the war, especially after 1943, including an effective resistance movement and the famous rescue of Danish Jews.)

Greenland, with an area of approximately 2.16 million km², is the largest island in the world. However, about 80% of it is covered by ice. It has a population of about 60,000, of which the capital, Nuuk, accounts for roughly 20,000. There is no road network linking towns; travel is by air or sea.

Greenland’s population is remarkably homogeneous, with Kalaallit/Inuit (including mixed Inuit–Danish) accounting for about 88–90%, and Danes (and other Europeans) about 10–12%. The Inuit have strong fishing and hunting traditions.

Mineral Wealth
Greenland is said to host some of the world’s largest known rare-earth deposits, hence Trump’s salivation. However, these elements are associated with uranium, making mining politically and environmentally contentious in Greenland. (The government banned uranium mining in 2021.) Northeast Greenland is also believed to contain one of the largest and highest-grade undeveloped zinc–lead deposits in the world. However, the location is extremely remote. Some large iron ore and graphite deposits have also been identified.

But do you believe the Americans can economically mine these minerals?

Greenland Politically…
Greenland is not a colony of Denmark. It is a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, with extensive autonomy. The relationship is constitutional, not administrative in the colonial sense. It is not part of the EU (Greenland withdrew in 1985). Denmark’s constitution formally applies, but most governing powers are devolved to Greenland.

Greenlanders are recognised as a distinct people under international law. Greenland controls most domestic policy areas. It has the right to declare independence if approved by a referendum and negotiated with Denmark. Denmark retains responsibility for foreign policy, defence and security, citizenship, monetary policy, and the Supreme Court. However, Greenland is consulted on foreign and security issues that directly affect it and may negotiate and sign international agreements in areas under its competence (e.g. fisheries and the environment).

Financial Relationship
Denmark provides an annual block grant of about USD 560–580 million. This accounts for around one-third of Greenland’s public budget.

The US operates Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base) under agreements with Denmark, with Greenland being consulted.

Militarily…
Greenland does not have its own army; Denmark is responsible for its defence under NATO and existing arrangements. The day-to-day military footprint is small, with periodic rotations of units rather than a large permanent garrison – often with 100–550+ troops, including NATO partners for training exercises.

The only significant foreign military presence in Greenland is US personnel at Pituffik Space Base – with about 100 US military personnel and support staff in 2025.

The Reality…
Greenlanders are not politically hostile to the United States, but Trump’s acquisition proposal does appear to cause some political outcry in Greenland, but not loud.

Most Greenlanders understand that the US has been present since WWII, and that the US presence predates Trump by decades. The US is seen as essential for Arctic security and as a counterweight to overdependence on Denmark.

But to the outside world, Trump’s covetousness – or lust – is a blatant display of hegemonism in its crudest form.

That said, I suspect the natives may succumb to the lure of good money; after all, what difference does it make if Greenland comes under the US? Trump has offered USD 100,000 per person; that amounts only to USD 6 billion.

There is no need for the US to stage any invasion. All it has to do is declare to the world that Greenland is theirs. Period.

Some Anthropological Facts…
Around 985 AD, Erik the Red, a Norseman from Iceland (then under Norwegian influence), founded settlements in Greenland. These Scandinavian settlers were culturally and politically tied to Norway, not Denmark. Greenland became part of the Norwegian realm in 1261, when the Norse Greenlanders pledged allegiance to the King of Norway. Between 1397 and 1523, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were united under one monarch. Greenland, as part of Norway, thus came under a Danish-led union, but legally remained Norwegian.

After Sweden left the union, Denmark and Norway remained united (1536–1814), and Greenland continued to be considered a Norwegian possession, even though Copenhagen administered it.

In 1814, Denmark lost Norway to Sweden after the Napoleonic Wars, but Denmark retained Norway’s overseas possessions (Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands). This was the legal moment when Greenland became formally Danish, despite its Norwegian origins.

The Inuit are Asiatic in ultimate origin, and their language clearly reflects this. Their ancestors originated in northeastern Siberia. During the last Ice Age, they crossed the Bering Land Bridge (Beringia) into the Americas. This migration occurred in multiple waves over thousands of years. The direct ancestors of Greenlandic Inuit (the Thule people) migrated eastward from Alaska across Arctic Canada to Greenland around c. 1200 AD. They do not identify themselves as “Asian” in any modern sense.

Conclusion
With this mad buffoon around, anything is possible. But he is also a TACO. He will chicken out if Denmark is smart enough to make the above picture happen!

End

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