People protest against US President Donald Trump’s policy toward Greenland in front of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, on January 17, 2026. Photo: VCG

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday shared a netizen’s post on social media Truth Social, in which the netizen claimed that China and Russia were simply “boogeymen” and that the United Nations and NATO were “the real threat.”

The post soon triggered heated discussions on social media, with some netizens expressing their confusion, questioning his contradictory statements. Some netizens said the real intent of the US president on the Greenland issue is to “break up NATO.” 

A Chinese expert said on Wednesday that the US-Europe divergences are fundamentally irreconcilable, as the current US administration has completely abandoned the alliance-based multilateralism once promoted by American elites and slid fully into naked law of the jungle. 

The “bellicose statements and threats,” just days before the US president was set to meet European leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, amounted to an “extraordinary provocation of some of the United States’ closest allies,” a New York Times report said on Wednesday. 

On X, one netizen @modhelius commented, “So, it turns out the Greenland debacle had nothing to do with protecting the US from Russia or China, but everything to do with breaking up NATO,” while another @MrWalnutzz pointed out that originally China and Russia were cited as the “reason” for Washington to take Greenland because they're a "threat to national security;" but now China and Russia aren't a threat, and NATO is.

A netizen @zorluhanzorlu suggested that NATO acts “not as a shield, but as a shackle.” “Its true mission is twofold: to ruthlessly purge ‘anti-system’ dissent within member states and to neuter their militaries, ensuring they remain incapable of independent action,” the comment read, adding that “NATO needs no external war; the ‘internal enemy’ suffices… the system's brain knows exactly how to enforce submission.”

Some others viewed the post as “a traitor to the West,” noting that the shame and consequences will be paid by the American people,” and “they are one step away from the point of no return.”

Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the divergences between US and Europe have now become profoundly deep and fundamentally irreconcilable. “They have each chosen an opposite side on the core question of international order – Europe favors a multilateral security framework that respects international rules and norms of behavior; the US, by contrast, embraces a jungle-law paradigm where the strong take all and the weak must swallow the bitter fruit,” Li noted.

He added that the pseudo-multilateralism long promoted by US elites – essentially alliance-based multilateralism – has been completely torn apart, replaced by naked unilateralism under the current administration. 

According to the New York Times report, world leaders in Davos appeared to acknowledge a new reality that under the current US government, they can no longer rely on a longtime ally. 

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, suggested Tuesday that the European Union would take steps to bolster its security in light of the crisis, and would look at “how to strengthen our security partnerships with partners such as the UK, Canada, Norway, Iceland and others,” the New York Times report said.

Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada put it bluntly at the summit on Tuesday, “Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” he said, per the New York Times.

Regardless of how US-Europe relations evolve, Li said China's position remains unchanged: we consistently uphold the international system centered on the United Nations and the international order based on international law, firmly adhering to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, with our fundamental stance unwavering. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun reiterated China’s position on Greenland at Monday’s press briefing, noting that the international law underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter is the foundation of the current international order and must be upheld. Guo urged the US to stop using the so-called “China threat” as a pretext for itself to seek selfish gains.