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Jamaica and foreign influence - CardBoardBox - 11-09-2020
This post is an editorial.
Over the years I have occasionally (meant in humor) posted things including the mis-aligned goals of certain China involvements on the island. The fish breeding area near Kingston is but one.
Less often I have said publicly that I wonder if the world knows, or cares, what is happening to their neighbors.
Today's NY Times (by subscription hence I will include a mini-quote) echos my sentiments by their headline. I almost thought I had an influence in its composition.
China Extends Reach in the Caribbean, Unsettling the U.S.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/world/americas/china-caribbean.html
Since people come here and pine for something to read, this will have to do. Many will not care about world wide raw material procurement, or internal policy, or that the rain forest is disappearing while wood and ivory travels by boat, but don't say you didn't see it happening, whatever "it" is.
-quote-
MEXICO CITY — China has offered Jamaica loans and expertise to build miles of new highways. Throughout the Caribbean, it has donated security equipment to military and police forces, and built a network of Chinese cultural centers. And it has dispatched large shipments of test kits, masks and ventilators to help governments respond to the pandemic.
The initiatives are part of a quiet but assertive push by China in recent years to expand its footprint and influence in the region through government grants and loans, investments by Chinese companies, and diplomatic, cultural and security efforts.
...
in July that China would extend $1 billion in loans for vaccines to Latin American and Caribbean countries.
### end quotes
There is some really good (?) stuff in the article. But as in the last paragraph, why does the US give gifts while China give loans?
And while there have been many gifts from them (hospitals), this sentence raised an eyebrow:
In 2018, Sri Lanka, unable to repay Chinese loans, surrendered its major port to China.
RE: Jamaica and foreign influence - dave - 11-11-2020
interesting article-
The Chinese are very long term planners & thinkers.