BEIJING, January 12. /TASS/. US President-elect Donald Trump's statements about Greenland and the Panama Canal indicate that the United States' global hegemony is in a vulnerable position, Wang Zaibang, a senior researcher at China's Taihe Institute, told TASS.
"The so-called return of [US] control over the Panama Canal, claims to take over Greenland, the takeover of Canada, and turning the Gulf of Mexico into the ‘Gulf of America’ are attempts to turn back the wheel of history," the expert said. "Trump and the decision-makers in his entourage see that the global hegemony of the United States is under threat, and the trend toward a multipolar world is irreversible," he added.
"Today's United States is sliding down the slope, which is openly recognized by Americans and Trump himself," the analyst added. According to Wang Zaibang, Washington is now clinging to the Monroe Doctrine, which asserts that the United States is the sole hegemon in the Western Hemisphere. "Washington has nothing to offer the countries of the West except an inflated dollar bubble," Wang Zaibang continued.
The expert offered two probable reasons for Trump's expansionist claims. "Firstly, after his unprecedented election victory, his political ambitions have swelled; he has completely lost his mind and really wants to become the greatest American president," Wang Zaibang suggested. Secondly, the president-elect may be trying to find hot topics to maintain his popularity, "which is facilitated by his character." "His ambition surpasses that of any president in American history," the expert added.
In recent weeks, Trump has been increasingly promoting the idea of incorporating Canada and Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark, into the United States. He justifies this by claiming the need to protect the Arctic from alleged threats posed by Russia and China. The authorities of Canada and Denmark, as well as the Greenland autonomy, have strongly criticized the initiative.