One country, two systems? Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Republican ambitions to annex Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal

Is Donald Trump inspired by China's supreme leader, Xi Jinping?

Like Xi, Trump aims to expand his country's territorial borders. In Trump's case, he wants the United States to annex the Panama Canal, Greenland and the independent nation of Canada. The US president-elect also wants to rename familiar geographic terms, like the Gulf of Mexico, to the Gulf of America. This, too, sounds a lot like Xi.

Xi's imperialist ambitions include seeking control of the independent nation of Taiwan, parts of the independent nation of Bhutan, part of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India, and the Depsang Plains in the northwest border with India.

Additionally, Xi maintains that China has jurisdiction over a group of uninhabited islands off southern Japan. Japan claims them as the Senkaku Islands; China claims them as the Diaoyu Islands; and Taiwan claims them as the Tiaoyutai Islands.

Additionally, Xi's government insists that it has full control over the Paracel/Xisha Islands claimed by Vietnam in the South China Sea. Additionally, Xi insists that China owns the Spratly Islands, claimed in whole or in part by Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Of course, Canadians are overwhelmingly opposed to annexation by the United States. That's because most Canadians cherish their free health care, hate gun violence and American-style school shootings, and want to keep their public pension system. Additionally, as a constitutional monarchy, Canada's head of state is King Charles III. No one asked him what he thought about ceding his status as head of state to Trump.

Trump could repeat CCP language

Meanwhile, Canadian courts have ruled that Indigenous peoples retain their ancestral titles and rights in a post-Confederation Canada. However, there is no guarantee that an increasingly discredited US Supreme Court would accept this decision.

Of course, Trump could echo the language of the Chinese Communist Party in his dealings with Hong Kong by promising one country, two systems in exchange for Canada joining the United States. In this way, Trump could promise that Canada would retain its autonomy in health care, indigenous rights, official languages, education and other areas for a period of 50 years after its annexation by America.

But how can we prevent Trump or his successors from copying Xi's repression in Hong Kong? Xi simply amended a national security law to apply to Hong Kong, imposing a de facto dictatorship.

There are also lessons to be learned from the People's Republic of China's annexation of Tibet after the Chinese Civil War in 1949. After Chairman Mao launched the Battle of Chamdo against Tibet in 1950, the two sides signed a seventeen-point agreement the following year. This would have granted regional autonomy to Tibet.

Tibet is anything but autonomous

However, the official head of state, the Dalai Lama, rejected the seventeen-point agreement. Eight years later, he went into exile in India. China still describes its 1.2 square kilometer ancient nation as the Tibet Autonomous Region, but it is anything but autonomous, according to Amnesty International.

In February, five UN experts wrote to the Chinese government expressing concerns about labor transfer programs under which millions of rural Tibetans were allegedly removed from their homes and livelihoods. traditional livelihoods and placed in low-skilled, low-paid manufacturing jobs, the human rights group said in its report. China Country Report 2023.

In March 2023, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights called for an immediate end to the involuntary resettlement and relocation of small farmers and pastoralists in Tibet.

She also raised concerns about campaigns to eradicate Tibetan culture and language, the closure of schools teaching Tibetan and other minority languages, and assimilation programs, including the residential school system. forced treatment of Tibetan children, said Amnesty International.

As an imperial power, the United States already has some autonomous regions. They include the territories of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, as well as the territories of Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. By adding the autonomous regions of Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal, Trump hopes to expand American hegemony in ways Xi could only dream of.

However, it's not as simple as Trump waving a wand. According to the U.S. Constitution, new states can only be admitted by Congress.

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