Beijing wants to avoid being drawn into a confrontation with Washington while still demonstrating that it has an independent voice on major international crises.
With his reliance on naked power and rejection of all constraints on his authority, Trump represents the opposite of everything that made the U.S. great.
If boat trips from a few hundred years ago are not a claim of ownership, then why should this just apply for Denmark in Greenland, and not also for the European colonizers in North America?