The Tribune

ALONG with other Caribbean heads of government, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley bristles at patronising questions, including from journalists, querying the Caribbean’s relationship with China.

As The National reported, BBC presenter Zeinab Badawi strongly suggested to Mottley in an interview: “But it’s not just Barbados that’s moving closer to China, it’s the whole of the Caribbean – I mean, investment from China has gone up many folds in the last few years.”

Mottley retorted: “It’s the whole world. If I look correctly, I think the Chinese hold a large, large percentage of assets within the United States of America and a large amount of their treasuries as well.

“So for you to focus on the Caribbean or Africa with China, without recognising the role that China is playing in Europe or the North Atlantic countries, is a bit disingenuous and really reflects more that we’re seen as pawns, regrettably, rather than countries with equal capacity to determine our destiny and to be part of that global conversation to fight the global issues of the day such as climate and the pandemic.”

This exchange between Mottley and Badawi went viral, including in China, with many people around the world tiring of lectures from some in the West who view leaders in developing states as simpletons who do not understand their national interests.

There is considerable condescension, arrogance and hypocrisy by those, including in the United States Government, who lecture other countries on China’s global intentions as the two powers compete for influence. There is also a high degree of propaganda and misinformation that often belies the facts.

This past March, CNN reported: “Gen Glen VanHerck, commander of US Northern Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that China’s expansion has included increased work on the Belt and Road Initiative, a massive international infrastructure project that seeks to expand Chinese influence around the world, as well as ‘economic coercion’ in The Bahamas and ‘investment’ on South American projects.

“In the Caribbean, China is ‘very aggressive’ in The Bahamas, VanHerck said, where they have built the largest embassy in the world complete with an ambassador who ‘uses the information space to undermine us each and every day’.”

The general’s comments on the size of the Chinese embassy were incorrect. Did the general not consider that such a statement was likely incorrect and that there are many Chinese embassies larger than the one in The Bahamas?

What other facts and analyses are US officials getting wrong about The Bahamas, the Caribbean and other countries? Is it not possible for diplomatic and military officials to write an informed accurate brief on this matter?

Just as the US uses the “information space” to promote its interests, other embassies, including those of the UK, Brazil, Haiti, Cuba and others, have a right to promote their views.

In using this “space” it is essential for the sake of credibility that foreign governments do not engage in outsized hyperbole, misinformation and condescension.

Overblown rhetoric like “aggressive, “stranglehold”, “coercion”, which are precisely the words many countries employ to describe domination of the global commons by the United States over the past century, are unhelpful. Regional leaders and publics need to be engaged respectfully and intelligently.

The same bombast about the size of the embassy was seen in some of the commentary on the collapse of the cryptocurrency giant FTX last year.

While there were legitimate questions about its collapse, the typical preening and misinformation by certain members of the US Congress revealed a continued belligerent ignorance about The Bahamas by some US officials.

The Bahamas, like other countries, including the United States, has various national interests in areas such as economic development, political affairs and national security. We seek pragmatic engagement and good relations with all countries, especially key allies such as the United States of America.

The Bahamas is grateful for the strong ties with the US, upon which we should continue to build. The recent visit by Vice President Kamala Harris, primarily because we are currently chairing Caricom, was welcome. The assistance offered the region, though terribly inadequate, was at least movement in the right direction.

The criticism that the less than day-long visit was woefully short and yielded relatively little is not a criticism of Ms Harris, who is carrying out her governments’ foreign policy.

Ms Harris is exceptionally capable. It is unfortunate that she has been the brunt of certain demeaning criticism in the US that is blatantly misogynistic and racist.

A story in the latest edition of The Economist reported: “It [China] went from hardly trading with the region at the turn of the century to overtaking the United States to become the top trading partner for South America, and the second almost everywhere else in Latin America.

“Between 2005 and 2021, Chinese state-owned banks loaned $139bn to Latin American governments. It has invested billions of dollars in the region, mainly in energy and mining.

“Some 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have signed up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive global infrastructure-building spree.”

What some Americans deem as “economic coercion” others view as economic ties that have resulted in significant and necessary investment from China in The Bahamas, including in infrastructure and tourism, especially after the Great Recession of 2008 when we were in dire straits.

This does not mean that national leaders are naïve about either China or the United States, and the global interests and stratagems of both powers.

Bahamians would enthusiastically welcome more US investment, both public and private. But the US, which appears to see The Bahamas and the Caribbean as mostly security risks, has benignly neglected the region for decades.

Most of our international commercial banks are historically Canadian. Most of the ownership of foreign-owned hotels is non-American. Why is there not more US foreign direct investment in The Bahamas? The region desperately needs infrastructure in areas such as health care, education and infrastructure.

The US has given billions to Ukraine to confront Russia’s aggression, with billions more in aid, military hardware and other assistance to come, including for reconstruction.

Is it not possible for the US government to set up a multibillion-dollar Caribbean Development Fund and to work with regional and international private banks and multilateral finance agencies to provide debt relief and lower interest loans to fund development in the region?

Development assistance to the Caribbean is about more than goodwill between neighbours. As others have noted, the new name for security is development!

To stem the flow of migrants, which is going to increase as the climate warms, to secure its status in the region, and to enhance regional security and stability, the US needs to be significantly more engaged in helping with national development across the Caribbean archipelago.

America is not the only major player in the 21st century. The Caribbean must have practical engagement with both China and the US, India, Europe, Latin America and Africa. For our survival, Caricom must become more cohesive and must act in unison in the global commons.

Bahamian leaders must be practical. We are not a major country like India, which has the heft, resources and strategic position to be engaged and wooed by the United States and China.

India is a member of the BRICS group, a counterweight to the economic power of the US. The group has launched the New Development Bank and is considering a currency that will not be dependent on the US dollar.

India is also a member of the Quad, which includes the US, Japan and Australia, and is designed to be a counterweight to Chinese military power and general influence in Asia. There are continued tensions on the approximately 2,100-mile-long border between China and India.

We are a small nation off the coast of the world’s superpower, which brings a variety of constraints. As a former Bahamas prime minister often said: the world isn’t fair. But we must also not be viewed as obsequious toadies afraid to engage other countries such as China with respect and a spirit of cooperation.

Dr Scott B MacDonald, a Caribbean Policy Consortium Fellow and Global Americans Research Fellow, is the Chief Economist for Smith’s Research and Gradings. In a post on the Jamestown Foundation website, Dr MacDonald notes: “One of the major challenges for the US is to create a coherent Caribbean policy. Indeed, it can be argued that China’s becoming the Caribbean’s significant other has been helped by Washington’s relative disinterest in the region.

“A central component of any coherent US response to China in the Caribbean is for Washington to reconsider its own approach to economic statecraft.

“Moreover, the ongoing US mantra to its neighbours of discouraging doing business with China or accepting its loans (the debt-trap diplomacy argument) has rubbed many Caribbean leaders the wrong way.

“Most Caribbean countries are keenly aware that closer relations with China are not appreciated in Washington; however, the US approach has often had the appearance of the U.S. talking down to Caribbean countries, not to mention a wilful ignorance of Caribbean security needs, which are increasingly defined in terms of sustainability and resiliency.”

If the United States wants to better engage The Bahamas, the Caribbean and Latin America, its needs to have a better “whole world strategy” that views the world more broadly and beyond the strictures of mostly military and security considerations, which though essential, are woefully insufficient in this century.

In so doing, the United States of America may learn a few lessons from the People’s Republic of China.

(Front Porch is now available in podcast on The Tribune website under the Editorial Section.)