As the U.S. looks inward with its “America first” policy, China has in recent years been accused of attempting to increase its influence in the Latin American and the Caribbean through carefully crafted trade and aid schemes, and by financing thousands of Chinese businesses in the region, among other strategies.
From the Bahamas in the northern Caribbean to Guyana and Suriname in the far south of the 15-nation Caricom bloc, large Chinese state and private sector companies have been spreading their wings in the region, investing hundreds of millions of dollars and winning large Caribbean government contracts — all the while Chinese merchants move to dominate the supermarket and hardware stores sector, heavy duty trucking services, and even gold and diamond mining.
Critics say the Chinese influence is less obvious in the economies of the smaller Eastern Caribbean nations where there are fewer opportunities to dominate than in the more so-called developed nations.
As the local merchant class continues to lobby governments to limit the growth and influence of cash-flush Chinese companies, an interesting situation is playing itself out in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
There, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, seeking a sixth consecutive five-year term in elections due this year, has been openly accusing China of supporting the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) to get his Unity Labor Party (ULP) out of power so St. Vincent can switch diplomatic allegiances from Taiwan to mainland China once the ULP is out of office. He also says that it is in China’s interest to get the NDP in power as it has promised to follow the policy of neighboring islands like Grenada and Dominica, St. Lucia, Antigua and St. Kitts to sell local passports and citizenship in exchange for cash, a policy the ULP has staunchly opposed. The ULP argues that Chinese nationals would be among the first to apply for citizenship under the controversial citizenship by investment program (CIP) as a Vincentian passport allows visa free travel to dozens of countries around the world.
Reacting to the allegations about attempts at regime change in St. Vincent, Chinese Ambassador to Grenada Wei Hongtian says Beijing has no such plans.
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“It is not our policy to interfere in the internal affairs of any country — it is not our policy to involve ourselves in local politics,” Wei told the Grenada newspaper New Today, denying Chinese merchants are investing in the opposition. “It is not our policy. China encourages its companies to have cooperation with their local partners in other countries but ask them to always respect and follow the local law and to do this in-keeping with international laws.”
But in a rather candid assessment of the situation in St. Vincent, PM Gonsalves noted that the Chinese are determined to see the back of the ULP. “Right now, they’re operating in the embassy of a country not too far from us, in this Caribbean. It is from there that the center of the NDP election campaign is being financed and run. It is organizing the printing of t-shirts in various constituencies. They’re paying people who’re commenting on radio. They are paying the radio station them, too. In one case, there’s an entity out of India which is connected with some cricket thing. They’re all now putting money into the NDP coffers,” he said.
Most Caricom countries have diplomatic relations with mainland China but a few like St. Vincent and Haiti among others have resolutely opted to stay with Taiwan, much to the annoyance of China.
Gonsalves says the ULP will remain opposed to the golden passport scheme once in power. “I am opposed to selling the passports and the citizenship in principle. I’m opposed on the grounds of practicality. I’m opposed on the grounds that it is not sustainable and that it is reckless to run your country’s finances on selling passports and citizenship,” he said.
The ULP had abandoned the cash for passport scheme when it took power in 2001, but the NDP has made no secret of its plans to reinstate such if it wins general elections constitutionally due by next February but widely expected late this year.