Behind the trade war and Trump’s offer to buy Greenland lies growing US discomfort with China’s overseas expansion

China has made no secret of its interest in Arctic resources and has expanded its influence into US spheres of influence

The US president’s anger at Denmark over Greenland wasn’t the first sign that such ambitions trouble Washington

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a joint press conference with Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on July 20. Pompeo visited Ecuador as part of a tour of Latin America, and later that month Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Brazil and Chile. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 1:00am, 28 Aug 2019Updated: 4:21am, 28 Aug 2019

Recent developments have merely served to underline why the US-China trade war commands such attention. This is a trade war with global ramifications, but it is also just the tip of the iceberg in a global tussle for economic and political influence between China and the United States. It shouldn’t be viewed in isolation.

Last week’s decision by US President Donald Trump to put off a trip to Denmark is a case in point. On the surface, Trump’s decision, after Copenhagen had declined to discuss a US proposal to purchase Greenland, has nothing to do with China. But, at least in part, it was a desire to secure Greenland’s natural resources that drove the US offer, resources in which Beijing also has an active interest.

As Washington will be fully aware, China has been forging a closer economic relationship with Greenland.

Efforts by state-owned China Communications Construction Company to secure the contract to build two new airports in Greenland may have foundered but China has been developing its mining interests there, notably in Greenland’s Kvanefjeld uranium and rare earth extraction project.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen gives a statement on Donald Trump’s cancellation of his state visit in Copenhagen on August 21, following her rejection of his proposal to sell Greenland to the United States. Photo: EPA-EFE

In truth, the Trump administration should probably have expected to be rebuffed by Copenhagen. After all, a previous offer from the United States to purchase Greenland, an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark, in 1946, had also been declined by the Danes.

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