US Faces Skepticism Over Deterring China as Trump Eyes Greenland

Xi Jinping at a military parade in Beijing in September 2025. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg Photo by Qilai Shen /Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — As President Donald Trump threatens to seize Greenland, tensions over whether his actions would undermine efforts to deter China in the Indo-Pacific were laid bare at a major security forum in Hawaii this week. 

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At the Honolulu Defense Forum, many current and former US government and military officials made the argument that steps taken by Washington to counter Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere, including the removal of Venezuela’s president, would weaken Beijing’s global reach and help Washington project power with its allies in the East.

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“Venezuela. Greenland. What is the overarching theme? Denying Chinese access, denying Chinese malign influence,” said Alexander Gray, a chief of staff of the White House National Security Council in the first Trump administration.

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But in the corridors and meeting rooms of the annual gathering of military, government and defense industry leaders, many other participants expressed unease at Trump’s challenge to a fellow NATO member over control of Greenland.

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Lt. Gen. Chun In-bum, a retired army officer in South Korea — an American ally since the Korean War — said he had always thought of the US as a force for good. 

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“Now I’m in a situation where I must tell my people that we now have two evils,” he said. “And we must choose the lesser evil.” 

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While most US allies tacitly supported the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, sidestepping concerns about international law, Trump’s threats to Greenland have prompted Europeans to establish a military presence on the island and have raised questions about the future of NATO. China, meanwhile, has called on nations to respect the United Nations charter and denounced the US for abiding by “the law of the jungle.” 

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Participants in Hawaii discussed ways to counter China’s military build-up in the Indo-Pacific region through missile defense, artificial intelligence and a stronger defense industrial base, among other issues. However, US officials mostly avoided direct criticism of China as Washington navigates a tentative truce over trade ahead of a meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping planned for April.

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That caution has also been reflected in Trump’s limited public support for Japan as it comes under economic and military pressure from China in a dispute over Taiwan, as well as for leaders in Taipei following major Chinese military exercises around the island at the end of last year.

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The wariness of angering Beijing showed that the Trump administration wasn’t interested in broader strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region, according to Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs in the Biden administration.

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“You can’t tell me that you’re prioritizing the China challenge if you’re not passing the grade in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.