China mocks White House’s Greenland penguin meme

The flightless bird which was used to promote the claim to the island lives in Antarctica, not the far north

The Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua has ridiculed the administration of US President Donald Trump for using the popular ‘Nihilist penguin’ meme to promote its campaign to gain control of Greenland.

On Saturday, the White House’s page on X decided to exploit the hype around the meme, which features a lone Adelie penguin abandoning his colony to walk towards distant icy mountains.

It published an AI-generated picture of Trump leading the flightless bird by his wing along an ice-covered plane towards the mountains, where a flag of Greenland is erected. In his other wing, the penguin is holding a US flag. “Embrace the penguin,” the caption reads.

The stunt did not go unnoticed online; Xinhua responded to it by educating the White House about the birds, who don’t live in Greenland, which is located in the Northern Hemisphere. Only Galapagos penguins are to be found north of the equator.

Embrace the penguin. pic.twitter.com/kKlzwd3Rx7

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 23, 2026

“Even if there are penguins in Greenland, it would be like this,” the Chinese journalists wrote in their post, which included an AI generated video of Trump, dressed in an Uncle Sam costume, dragging a resisting penguin on a leash, while carrying a baseball bat in the other hand.

Even if there are penguins in #Greenland, it would be like this... @WhiteHouse #USA #Hegemony pic.twitter.com/X9lwM3yE1F

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 24, 2026

The original ‘Nihilist Penguin’ image was taken from German filmmaker Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary about Antarctica, titled ‘Encounters at the End of the World,’ and has only gone viral online since the start of the year.

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The scene has inspired numerous memes, and users have come up with various interpretations of it: from being a commentary on loneliness and existential crisis to a metaphor of independent thinking and rebellion.

Earlier this week, Trump announced that a “framework” for a Greenland deal, negotiated with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, is now on the table and would provide the US with “all the military access we want.” The agreement reportedly grants the US “sovereign base areas” on the world’s largest island and fast-tracks rights to mine rare earth minerals.

On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun insisted that Beijing has no plans to exploit the division created between the US and EU over Greenland. “China follows an independent foreign policy of peace. We conduct friendly exchanges with other countries based on mutual respect and equality,” he said.