The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Much as I admire the independent spirit and patriotism of your articulate young columnist Adrian Gibson, I fear that his recent column (January 15) verges on hysteria in his condemnation of our Government’s embrace of China. He would have us believe the Prime Minister’s recent trip to Beijing will subject all Bahamians to economic pain and suffering and, very possibly, slavish domination by a foreign power that will attack our life style and restrict our personal liberties—without any hard evidence how this may happen.

Like all young firebrands, Mr Gibson is long on the rhetoric  of windy generalisations and very short on specific suggestions. He relies interminably on the platitudes “colonialism” and the more modern “neo-colonialsim” as ills  that must be banished from international affairs, whereas they simply describe the inevitable relationship  between a  strong, large, well diversified nation and a smaller, weaker, less diversified one.

The Bahamas  economy has for years been sustained by tourism, and about 90 per cent of our tourists come from the United States, with typical American tastes and demands that infiltrate our culture. Thus we have a relationship of “neo-colonial” dominance by the US. But we doubt that Mr Gibson would favour border controls that would limit US tourists to 50 per cent of the total – a sure way to kill tourism and our economy.

Of course, the Chinese influence is a bit different: it emanates from centralised state control rather than from scattered private interests. But what evidence do we see that it’s damaging our nation or our citizens? Who can criticise the economic impact of the Hutchison-Whampoa container port?

As to Baha Mar, while we hoped for a greater portion of Bahamian construction workers, once the complex opens the vast increase in local hotel employment will spread wage benefits widely, at far from rock-bottom levels. The looming sports stadium is a bit unsightly but encourages athletic ambition and popular entertainment, without becoming a haven for crooks and druggies. There’s no sign of China basing military forces here or imposing its own style of justice and law enforcement— we will not have a Tiananmen Square massacre in our islands.

The recent Government mission simply represents a hard-headed, practical attempt to get help from where it’s being offered. The Prime Minister has been forced to recognise the many challenges facing this nation, some of his own making, some forced upon him. What can be more logical  than seeking a possible solution to the BEC mess? Or replacing incompetent BahamasAir with long-range flights from the Far East? Or living up to the endlessly deferred  promise of regenerating downtown Nassau? Or restructuring our international debt?

Like any nation-state, China naturally thinks about its own self-interests and makes rational decisions for its own benefit. China has a problem: it has too much idle cash that can’t be soaked up by the domestic economy, vast though it is. If its surplus wealth just sat passively invested in US T-bills, the result would be a deflationary spiral that would hurt not only China but the whole world, including The Bahamas. So China makes the rational decision to seek new markets, and focuses on our country, and probably the entire Caribbean. As in any trade of cash for other assets, this is not a zero-sum game—what’s good for China is also good for us.

The new Chinese embassy on Shirley is bigger than the old American one on Queen Street, symbolising the greater influence on our nation shifting rapidly from the US to China. We maintain our productive relationship with the United States, but they simply do not have the economic structure or political will to match China’s present and future investments here. The shift in the world power structure is a fact of life that must be accepted.

Of course Mr Christie has a political and personal agenda, eager to end his career on a triumphant note. But if he succeeds with the Chinese, he’ll be entitled to blow a horn and shake a cow-bell. My advice to Mr Gibson: relax. Keep a sharp eye out for corruption (in FNM or PLP) and specific incompetence, but abandon your misguided campaign of spreading vague, woolly-minded fears of “selling our birthright” to the Chinese—unless you have something better to offer.

RICHARD COULSON

Nassau,

January 17, 2015.