WHATEVER happened to the blustering Donald Trump, who promised to show the world how he was going to put an expansionist China in its place and make “America First” again? Of course, we did not realise that America was not first, but that is the gospel according to Trump — a gospel, which, after only 40 days in office, we have decided to ignore.
After his threats of what he was going to tell China’s President Xi Jinping, President Trump’s attitude seemed to change to “brother let’s sit down and break bread together.”
“We have made tremendous progress in our relationship with China,” the US president announced after the two-day summit at his luxury Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
But what had seemingly mellowed Mr Trump? Had he looked to the south of him — in the direction of The Bahamas — and seen the strength of China in our islands? Had his eyes wandered to the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea to discover an even more active China among those islands? He probably got palpitations when he looked towards the Panama Canal on the Pacific side and saw that from both ends of that canal President Xi had locked him in.
Mr Trump planned to build a wall to keep the Mexicans out, not realising that China had already occupied the US’s safety moat on the Atlantic side. What had happened to the Munroe Doctrine? Written by President James Munroe and announced in his seventh annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823, it was the former colonists’ protective moat, forcing the Europeans, especially the English, to respect the Western Hemisphere as America’s exclusive area of influence.
“We owe it, therefore,” according to the Munroe Doctrine, “to candour and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”
What must Mr Trump have thought when he realised the true position his country was now in. Did he wonder if he might be in a similar situation as what is now happening in the South China Seas, where China is trying to exert control of the area through possession of a couple of small islands?
Whatever the reason, the two leaders parted with President Trump seemingly in a more subdued and conciliatory mood.
Here at The Tribune we have always considered China’s presence in our islands political, rather than a desire to invest and create jobs for Bahamians. Rather they have relieved their labour problems in China by bringing their own workers with them. They have been of little help to our jobless Bahamians. For example, it has always been said that the location of Hutchison Whampoa in Freeport was the reward for The Bahamas agreeing to invite the Taiwanese embassy – the People’s Republic of China (PRC) — to leave The Bahamas so that diplomatic relations could be established with the Republic of China. This was done on May 23, 1997. Less than two months later, the Republic of China (ROC) - in recognition of the One China policy— was fully settled in The Bahamas. The Taiwanese embassy had left.
It was all over the fight as to whether the People’s Republic of China (Taiwan) should also have a seat in the United Nations. Mainland China was one of the charter members of the UN and one of the permanent members of its security council. The argument was that China should have only one representative in the UN and that one should be mainland China – the ROC – and not break-away Taiwan, the People’s Republic. Mainland China was determined that Taiwan was not to be a UN member and so the ROC travelled the length and breadth of the Caribbean enticing those islands with Taiwanese embassies to order them out to be replaced by Beijing. Many of the Caribbean islands got a sports stadium as their reward, as did The Bahamas.
At the time of the fight over the UN seat, and closing the door on Taiwan, we were very concerned for the future of The Bahamas. In our opinion when it came to freedoms, human rights and democracy in general, the ideas of the Taiwanese and those of mainland China were poles apart. As we expressed our fears for the future, the other person with whom we were talking, jokingly quoted the late Sir Etienne Dupuch, who, in another context, had once remarked that The Bahamas was “only a pimple on the backside of the world”. In other words we were too small to be of significance. We disagreed. We believed that sometime in the future that little pimple would not only grown in size, but also in importance. Is that day here and now with China having invested so heavily in our islands?
If anything goes wrong we have only the PLP government to blame. They fell for the bait, hook, line and sinker – taking The Bahamas with it.
Already Baha Mar, which was supposed to be the gem of the Caribbean — despite its rushed opening to try to regain its reputation — is attracting much unwanted international publicity for the Bahamas.
“Over the past several years,” wrote Evan Siegfried last Thursday in the “Daily Beast”, “countries in the Caribbean and Central America have seen the Chinese seek to expand their influence. Between 2003 and 2012, Chinese investment in the regions increased 500 per cent even as American investment declined. As a result, China has gained a foothold in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, Antigua, Panama, and many other countries with geographical proximity to the United States.”
And, he continued, “according to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, the American embassy in The Bahamas repeatedly expressed alarm at China’s moves to invest in The Bahamas and other Caribbean nations. Yet, both the Bush and Obama administrations failed to counter China’s actions and aggressive expansion.
“The Bahamas are a nation where up until recently, Americans would invest, work, and vacation. Tourism accounts for over 60 per cent of its GDP, and it used to be filled with resorts that were either owned or financed by American companies. Taking advantage of the Great Recession, Chinese government-owned banking and construction companies moved into The Bahamas with Chinese financing and labour to facilitate major infrastructure projects, from a sports stadium to roads to hotel construction and ownership, making the Bahamian government and The Bahamas itself entirely dependent on China for its economic future.”
Siegfried’s article is interesting and should be read by all Bahamians so that they will understand what is happening to our country.
Comments
Porcupine 7 years ago
Editor,
What is happening in The Bahamas is a result of myopic national policy here, executed by a handful of self enriching capitalists with little to no concern for the social welfare. Trump would feel welcome here. Neither the US, nor China, controls the democratic process in The Bahamas. Foreign policy is another matter here, where Ministers are so easily bought and sold. The Chinese understand this. Were there an honest understanding of geopolitics, human nature and economics, The Bahamas could be a nation able to hold it's head up in the world. However, the neo colonial capitalist mentality that formed the basis of the Bahamian worldview accepts the idea of sovereignty as subject to the whims of a superpower. Times change, and so should ideas of the day. Unfortunately, when so much personal wealth and ego is staked upon the ideas of the past, and where the modes of public access to information are owned by the elites, we have an unreasonably slow march towards enlightenment. Just look at the very idea of monarchy. Talk about silly and outdated. The world, and The Bahamas with it, are marching down a path that leads to destruction of humanity via nuclear war and environmental destruction. The signs are everywhere, except for those who continue to revel in the past constructions of an us versus them mentality. Pretty soon, and likely sooner than later, the seas will rise, covering all but the hills in The Bahamas. What will the daily editorial be then? Still about China and the US?
John 7 years ago
SO who in the past 10-20 years did not realize that America was no longer first? When was the last time you bought something in America that said on the label 'made in America?' America has spent the past 10-20 years destroying herself, both from within and externally by creating so many enemies, she has to spend so much of her revenue on defense, she has virtually bankrupted herself. Internally America had decided that rather than allow its Black and Hispanic citizens to have jobs and to earn a living and to live comfortably, she would shut sown her factories, outsource the jobs to Asia and to Mexico and to force is Black and Hispanic populations into unemployment and into poverty. But it did not stop there. The inner cities were flooded with drugs and guns and with the populations being broke and unemployed, they turned on one another killing up each other in the thousands. The most popular weapon now on the streets in these inner-cities, Chicago and Detroit and Atlanta, and Compton and Memphis and many more is the AK-47. The AK-47 is an assault rifle that was designed in the United States but manufactured in China (getting the picture?). This weapon is now showing up in the Caribbean and even here in the Bahamas. And despite the many decades America spent fighting the war she declared on drugs, she is now cultivating and distributing locally, the same drugs she was at war for. But this is nothing new to America. It is well documented that as far back as the '80's America through the CIA sold drugs to supply weapons to the Contra rebels in Nicargua. If Hillary Clinton had won the presidency, the plan was to start rounding up (unemployed and 'gang' member Blacks and Hispanics and throw them into jails and prison camps. Many would have been slaughtered as tanks and troops marched into cities with orders to shoot on site, and shoot to kill. Remember China also had soldiers open fire on protesting students, killing many of them and calling them 'rebels'. America has also displayed its Black youth to the world as 'young savages who are killing up one another and resisting the forces of the police. We, too, here in the Bahamas, mostly through ignorance, are launching assaults on young, unemployed, disorientated youth and tossing them into jails, not realizing that they will be 10 times the problem when they are released, not only because of being exposed to the prison environment, but because they feel that they did nothing wrong to go to jail.
John 7 years ago
But what now will happen that Donald Trump has won the presidency instead of Hillary Clinton? Trump on the election trail had promised to drain the swamp in Washington and expose all the skeletons buried in it. But like many of his campaign promises, he is finding that this too may be an impossibility, not because the swamp is too deep, but the number of skeletons are too great. He was about to authorize troops and tanks to march into Chicago to kill up and arrest and lock up young blacks and Hispanics, but he was warned by community leaders to do more research and to exercise caution before he take any actions. Leaked documents show that a president and presidential elect was responsible for throwing thousands of young black youth into jails and exposing them to drugs and experiments that have them with completely altered personalities and behaviors, that Hillary Clinton described them as 'severely damaged goods that need to be put away." But that is not the worst of Americas problems. White Americans are also panicking and distancing themselves from Donald Trump. Many feel that he will intentionally or in-advertantly lead America into a war it cannot win. So many are packing their families and leaving. they are not coming to the Bahamas or Canada, but they are going as far away as Australia and the United Kingdom. They have witnessed what has happened to American war veterans over the past years. Many are left homeless and do not receive proper care, medical or care otherwise. In fact some reports show that 22 war vets commit suicide in the US everyday. One every 65 minutes. So America has her internal problems to battle. But what exactly is the real relationship between the Unite States and china? Why is China now taking on the personality of the United States. Going into other countries far and wide and making her economic presence felt? Why did china give out own government a supply of military arms and weapons as a gift?
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