Nevertheless, Trump’s comments on Greenland have created a stir on Chinese social media, which is subject to censorship. “If Greenland is annexed by the United States, China must take Taiwan,” Wang Jiangyu (王江雨), a professor of law at City University of Hong Kong, wrote on Sina Weibo.

President-elect Trump's talk of Canada as a "51st state" and annexing Greenland registered among national-security crowds as an "Oh, boy!" moment. Obnoxious, enticing, familiar. Why it matters: The darlings of Trump's current foreign policy fixation boast Arctic utility at a time when the icy region is heating up.