My Take | Why the US is eyeing Hong Kong and Greenland
- The two places may be poles apart, but both have a geopolitical value for Washington: Greenland for its resources and Hong Kong as leverage against China
Greenland and Hong Kong are rarely mentioned in the same breath. But perhaps they should now, as the United States has taken an interest in both, most likely for comparable geopolitical reasons.
US President Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland, and Washington has been interfering in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
Of course, the two semi-autonomous regions are poles apart, literally on opposite sides of the world. Greenland is the world’s largest island with a tiny population of 56,000. Hong Kong is tiny, but with almost 7.5 million people.
But history has made our political structures not dissimilar. While Greenland has its own government, its sovereign owner is Denmark, which is in charge of its defence and foreign policy. Sound familiar?
Denmark subsidises Greenland to the tune of US$670 million a year; the island doesn’t generate enough revenue on its own. But it could: it’s rich in oil and natural gas, and also rare earth minerals whose global supplies have been dominated by China.