US imperialism has put it far beyond the pale: China Daily editorial

Anyone still not clear about what gunboat diplomacy means only has to look at what the United States has done to Venezuela to gain enlightenment. It has abducted the president of the South American country and is implementing plans to rob it of its oil resources.

If that is not enough, US President Donald Trump's remarks about Greenland, an autonomous island of Denmark, leave no room for equivocation.

In response to a question from the BBC on Friday, Trump said that the US needs to "own" Greenland to prevent Russia and China from doing so, and that the US will acquire it either "the easy way" or "the hard way". This follows a recent White House statement that the administration was considering buying the territory of fellow NATO member Denmark, but it would not rule out the option of annexing it by force.

By saying so, the US leadership has shown that it does not have a smattering of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a sovereign country.

In a joint statement on Friday, Greenland's political parties rejected Trump's repeated threats to take control of the island, saying that its future must be decided by its people.

The joint statement issued by the leaders of various political parties in Greenland, stating that "Greenlanders do not want to become Americans", was a clear expression of the sentiment of the overwhelming majority of Greenland's population, who have consistently opposed the idea of becoming part of the US.

The statement effectively closed the loophole that the US administration might have hoped to exploit by claiming to act on the wishes of the Greenlandic people to "obtain" the island. The statement also prevents the US from creating and exploiting discord between the autonomous territory and Denmark, and legally blocks the possibility of the US acquiring Greenland.

By openly declaring that "it needs" an autonomous region of another sovereign country, Washington is telling the world that it has no regard for norms of international relations and no respect for international law.

Denmark is a member of NATO, and the US has long been the leader of the security alliance. If the US takes Greenland by force, it will be attacking its own ally. That effectively means the end of NATO.

If the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife on Jan 3 emboldens the US to proceed with the annexation of Greenland, it will only further encourage the US administration to do whatever it wants in brazen disregard of international law.

If Washington is allowed to use the lie that other countries intend to grab Greenland to acquire the Danish territory, then the US would be able to use the same pretext to grab whatever territories it desires from any other country. If that becomes the reality, the world will plunge into the colonial past in which might was right and there will be no fairness and justice in international relations.

Leaders of seven European countries — Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom — issued a joint statement last week affirming that Greenland "belongs to its people".

More European countries should stand up to the threat of the US and stand firmly behind Greenland. The so-called "Trump Corollary" of seeking absolute control over the geography, resources and sovereignty of the Americas, and even the entire Western Hemisphere, is threatening global stability and world peace. Not only Europe but the entire world should oppose the imperiousness of the US administration.

China has long maintained that respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries is a basic principle of international relations. The international community should not allow the US to have an inch or it will take yard after yard after yard.

By abducting the Venezuelan president and voicing an unjustified claim on Greenland, Washington has shown it is prepared to plunge the entire world into chaos so it can feather its own nest.