China has no intention of competing with other nations for influence, foreign ministry says

China emphasized it has no plans to compete for global influence, amid U.S. moves to acquire Greenland that are unsettling NATO and prompting Europe to reconsider its security reliance on Washington.

Reuters

January 21, 2026

China has no intention of competing with other nations for influence, foreign ministry says

FILE PHOTO: A Chinese flag flutters outside the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) building on the Financial Street in Beijing, China February 8, 2024.

Florence Lo/Reuters

China has no intention of competing with any other country for influence, its foreign ministry said on Wednesday (January 21), as a U.S. push to take control of Greenland threatens to reshape the power dynamics behind a decades-old transatlantic security alliance.

China has always maintained that, no matter how the international situation evolves, upholding the international system with the United Nations at its core serves the interests of the international community, said Guo Jiakun, spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, when asked at a regular news briefing if Beijing welcomed the "chaos" in Greenland.

U.S. President Donald Trump's ambition to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from Denmark has rattled NATO members in Europe and prompted a rethink in Europe of its traditional dependence for security on the United States.

Production: Wang Shubing, Xiaoyu Yin/Reuters