Henry Huiyao Wang on U.S.’s moves on Venezuela and Greenland

On CNBC, CCG president warns unilateralism could boomerang, and says Taiwan is a separate domestic issue.

In the wake of the U.S.’s moves on Venezuela and Greenland, Henry Huiyao Wang, founder and president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, spoke to Emily Tan of The China Connection live on CNBC that Washington’s recent moves risk undermining long-standing international norms and stressing that the Venezuela episode should not be read as a precedent for China’s Taiwan policy, which is a separate, domestic issue.

The interview video was released on YouTube on 8 January 2026 and also appears in a written CNBC report dated 7 January.

This transcript is based on the video and has been lightly edited to remove fillers and repetition. It has not been reviewed by any of the speakers.

Henry Huiyao Wang

You can see, since the Trump inauguration, he was talking about Greenland. He was talking about even Canada and, of course, Latin America as a whole. Secretary Rubio’s first visit after he took over the secretary position was to Latin American countries. But I think this is a landmark difference from all the previous U.S. administrations and basically 80 years of the UN’s establishment. This is a very divided approach now.

So, after what happened in Venezuela, and now talking about Greenland, Cuba, or Colombia, we are really getting into uncharted territory, and we have to be extremely careful. The international community has to work together now and probably stop this kind of unilateral approach. I think it’s also a wake-up call for the European countries that have been so closely allied with the U.S. to suddenly realise now its fundamental basis has been eroded and really challenged.

I think for China—of course, China is now the second-largest economy, probably the second-strongest country in the world—it has an obvious position to defend the UN Charter, UN principles: respect sovereignty, non-violation, no intrusion, and sticking to those principles. So, China has a very strong voice for that. But also, I think all those developments, and those areas, should be left to the UN and also to countries’ consultation, rather than just one country, because you are the largest economy with the largest military, and then there is a law of the jungle, and this kind of bullying act will come back. So we are in a very dangerous period now; we have to be very careful about that.

Emily Tan

We have been watching China’s reaction to Venezuela, the actions and developments brought on by the United States. Can you speak to the economic interests that China has in Greenland, and what could China’s response be to fend off any potential assault by the United States on Greenland?

Henry Huiyao Wang

Yes. I think that, for example, on Venezuela, there has already been an urgent UN Security Council meeting. The Chinese delegate there has strongly condemned the U.S. unilateral approach and strongly supported Latin America and, of course, Venezuela to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. You see, actually, out of the 193 UN member countries, 170 of them recognise Venezuela as a sovereign nation, as having legitimate sovereignty. And then, even if there are differences, let’s do it through the UN—you have to really respect local country conditions—and through other UN Security Council measures, rather than just go into that and do it yourself. I mean, that applies to all the other places too.

I think China’s position is very clear. China’s economy is tied to the world, and China is really helping other countries and regions to develop and contribute its support and development. So I think it hurts not only Chinese interests, but the global interest as well. But furthermore, it really damages the principles and fundamental pillar that we’ve been living with for the last 80 years of relatively peaceful times, and then we are probably going to see that era is gone—and that is very dangerous. That provides a whole, complete new game plan, and that’s really the challenge to the whole world. We will have to face it.

I think China, with other countries—the EU, all the countries in Latin America, and the Global South—would, of course, strongly condemn this, and then probably, the UN Security Council would have another meeting again; it has to take some measures to really stop this kind of unilateral approach.

Emily Tan

The views are split on whether or not the acts by the United States—the assault on Venezuela—would embolden China to start reunification, to quicken that with Taiwan. What is your take on this issue?

Henry Huiyao Wang

Well, I think it’s totally different matters. For example, Venezuela is a sovereign nation, recognised by 170 countries in the world, and it’s not really an imminent threat to any country. It’s relatively peaceful, has a large population as well, and it’s a big country. So this is really just the New Year’s surprise for all countries: that the president of a legitimate country has been kidnapped and subjected to U.S. laws and all those things. That has really opened a new Pandora’s box. I mean, any other country can do that.

But I think for the issue of Taiwan, it’s totally different. Taiwan is a part of China. There are less than probably a dozen countries that still recognise Taiwan as a country, but the vast majority recognise the mainland as the legitimate representation of the whole country.

So Taiwan is an unfinished civil war—it’s a domestic issue. The government of China reserves any rights and measures if Taiwan goes to independence, or that kind of move. But I see recently the KMT chairman has been more positive and has recognised she is Chinese; She would like to talk with the mainland. So probably next, we see a major election, the KMT could come back, and then we can engage in discussion, meetings, negotiation—Taiwan could peacefully return.

But if Taiwan leader Lai still practises an independence approach and really agonises the process, Chinese public opinion still reserves the right to unify the country. It’s a domestic issue; it’s totally different from what happened in Venezuela.