A section of China's Forbidden City.
David Jessop, Contributor
Trying to understand what China wants of the Caribbean has become a subject of conversation from one end of the region to the other. Whether over dinner, in boardroom meetings or among academics, there is a real interest in what China can bring, or is seeking from the region.
Trying to understand what China wants of the Caribbean has become a subject of conversation from one end of the region to the other. Whether over dinner, in boardroom meetings or among academics, there is a real interest in what China can bring, or is seeking from the region.
The question is an important one as there is little antipathy towards China, but a desire to understand better where the relationship that most governments are now pursuing might lead.
For the most part, such conversations refer to the absence of information; fear of competition as Chinese companies become resident in the region and bid for contracts; occasional breakdowns in cultural understanding at a working level; and small-business concerns about the impact that the increased Chinese presence in the region is having: all issues that need to be addressed.
Unfortunately, outside of government circles, what is said beyond this tends to be based on the concerns expressed in the decade-late discovery by the United States (US) media that China has been deepening its ties with the region. As a consequence, much private comment shows little understanding of the breadth, depth and complexity of the relationship that Beijing and its enterprises have already established across the Caribbean and Latin America, or awareness of the ways in which China's objectives are mutual, maturing and moving on.
China's thinking about the Caribbean first emerged formally in early 2005 at the first China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum. There it clarified an interest in the region that had been growing since 1999 when trade flows and contact began to accelerate.
From an approach originally driven by Beijing's one-China policy, the need to identify new sources of raw materials, and a desire for a deeper relationship with Cuba, China's interest in the region has turned into something strategic and could now, if Caribbean and Latin American governments concur, become more deep-rooted and profound.
In late June, China's premier, Wen Jiabao, made a remarkable speech. Delivered in Santiago, Chile, to the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, he suggested that China wanted to establish what amounts to a special relationship with the Caribbean and Latin America.
His remarks proceeded from the recognition that like China, the people of the Americas have an ancient culture and history.
Over time, he observed, because of their open, inclusive and innovative nature, that both civilisations have survived and thrived. Noting that today, Latin America and the Caribbean as a region is a major emerging power and was one of the engines driving global economic recovery, he suggested that a basis existed for a much deeper relationship.
Referring to multidimensional growth, the deepening of political trust and the substantive progress in development co-operation and trade since China's published its 2008 policy paper on Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr Wen proposed that the relationship should go further.
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