China's Reach is Extending to the Caribbean

By Henry Srebrnik, [Fredericton, NB] Daily Gleaner

Jamaica has emerged as an anchor of Chinese activity in the Caribbean. It has received more Chinese government loans than any other Caribbean island nation, according to the Inter-American Dialogue, which closely tracks Chinese government financing in the region.

Over the past 15 years, Beijing has lent Jamaica some $2.1 billion for building roads, bridges, a convention centre and housing, according to the group. Grants have financed a children’s hospital, schools and an office building for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among other projects, according to the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

And direct investments from Chinese firms in Jamaica poured more than $3 billion into projects like bauxite mining and sugar production.

China’s efforts in Jamaica are part of its global strategy to forge deep economic ties and strong diplomatic relationships around the world, in part through the building of major infrastructure projects under its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, the  global strategy adopted by Beijing in 2013 to invest in nearly 70 countries and international organizations.

Jamaica, near the geographic centre of the Caribbean region, became a partner in the initiative in April 2019, in order to develop Special Economic Zones and ports so that its global logistics hub would become an essential component of the project.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing in November of 2019, to discuss further economic cooperation. Also addressed were renewable energy, border security, agriculture, health care, and higher education.

While the Jamaican government announced that it would stop negotiating new loans from China, it would continue to cooperate with the Chinese on major infrastructure projects through joint public-private partnerships.

Jamaican officials maintain that outstanding Chinese loans are not putting an extraordinary burden on the country. They amount to about four per cent of Jamaica’s total loan portfolio.

In turn, the United States has stepped up warnings about the risks of doing business with Beijing, underscoring what it says are potential hazards ranging from shoddy construction to predatory loans and espionage.

The current American ambassador to Jamaica, Donald Tapia, cautioned against installing fifth-generation mobile networks made by Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese firms. Tapia called China “a dragon with two heads.”

He scolded China for its geopolitical game of chess, centred, he said, on extracting natural resources with ulterior motives. When they go into a country, he warned. they go after two things -- the minerals and the ports. “I could tell you horror stories of countries where they have taken over the ports because those countries could not pay for their investment.”

During a visit to Jamaica Jan. 22, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Prime Minister Holness and told him it was “tempting to accept easy money from places like China.”

The Chinese Embassy in Kingston, responding to Pompeo’s remarks, said it had deepened its involvement with Caribbean states “on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.”

“It seems that some U.S. politicians cannot go anywhere without attacking China, tarnishing China’s reputation, starting fires and fanning the flames and sowing discords,” the Chinese Embassy declared. “They can go on talking the talk if they so wish, but we will continue walking the walk. The world will tell plainly who is stirring up trouble and who is trying to make a difference.

“Latin America and the Caribbean countries, as independent sovereign countries, have every right to determine their own foreign relations including choosing their trade and investment partners. Others are in no position to impose interference or coercion out of ulterior motives.”

The pandemic has allowed China to strengthen the relationship further by donating or selling personal protective equipment, in what has come to be called “mask diplomacy.” The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, pledged in July that China would extend $1 billion in loans for vaccines to Latin American and Caribbean countries.

A crucial motivation for China’s Caribbean strategy also involves winning over the four remaining nations that officially recognize Taiwan instead of China as the country’s legitimate government, though this does not affect its policy towards Jamaica. Kingston established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1972 and is one of nine in the region that recognize the People’s Republic.