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Abstract
In recent years the People's Republic of China (China) has expanded its economic relations with CARICOM (the member states of CARICOM are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago). This is evident in the increase in trade and development assistance. The objective of this article is to explain the expanded and intensified economic presence of China in the CARICOM region. In order to accomplish this it is necessary to identify the motives for China's conduct in the region and the factors that account for the receptivity of CARICOM to economic relations with China. Although the focus is primarily on the economic relationship between China and the CARICOM countries, this aspect of China's involvement in the region cannot be separated from the political dimension. China's motives for a growing presence in the region are both economic and political and have to be examined in the wider context of China's overall foreign policy, its shifting world view, its superpower status and the geo-politics of the current global conjuncture. Similarly, CARICOM's conduct has to be located in the wider context of its overall foreign policy. The first section outlines the history and current status of China–CARICOM relations. This is followed by an exposition of the extent and increase in economic interaction between China and CARICOM. The third section provides an examination of China's motives for the conduct of its foreign policy in the CARICOM countries. These motives are partly influenced by economics and partly by politics and hence have to be understood in the global geo-political context. A fourth section is devoted to explaining CARICOM's receptivity to increased economic relations with China. The final section provides a brief outlook for China–CARICOM economic relations.
Acknowledgements
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the IADB. A special word of appreciation to Lincoln Price, Dan Erickson, Mauricio Moreira and Mary Perkins.
Notes
1. Revised Treaty Establishing the Caribbean Community including the Caricom Single Market and Economy, Article 6, p. 8.
2. ‘Some of these practices on the part of the Chinese have become a source of concern to western aid agencies—will Chinese aid discourage needed economic and political reforms?’ (Lancaster, 2007, p. 1).
3. China Statistical Yearbook 2006.
4. Sweig and Jianhai argue that the need for resources is ‘driving’ China's foreign policy. See Sweig and Jianhai (Citation2005, pp. 25–38).
5. Economic and Social Survey Jamaica 2008 (Kingston: National Planning Institute, 2009), p. 11.7.
6. UK Department of International Development—Caribbean.
7. Bilateral Exchanges, Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, www.english.mofcom.gov/bilateralexchanges/bilateralexchanges.html, accessed 16 November 2009.
8. Zweig and Jianhai (2005, pp. 25–38). This is particularly the case in Africa. See Ghazvinian (Citation2008, chapter 7).
9. This shift towards increased private sector involvement relative to official engagement has happened in other regions, for example, Africa. See Jian-Ye Wang (Citation2007).
10. Rees-Mogg (Citation2005). For a contrary view, see Thurow (Citation2007).
11. The long decline of China is traced in Hutton (Citation2006, chapter 2).
12. Fred Bergsten, ‘The Asian monetary crisis: proposed remedies’, Testimony to the US House Representatives, Committee on Banking and Financial Services, 13 November 1997; and ‘When China and India go down together’, The Economist, 345(22), 20 November 1997, pp. 78–79.
13. This will have to be a priority for Chinese policy. Yusuf and Nabeshima (Citation2006, pp. 78–79).
14. Since January 2007 China has 2,146 peacekeepers deployed in 10 missions mainly in Africa, with the heaviest concentration of peacekeeping troops in Liberia, where there are 563. See also Gill and Huang (2009).
15. The ‘Peaceful Rise’ school of thought has given way to more assertive approaches, including an end to what some view as appeasement on the issue of Taiwan. See Leonard (Citation2008, pp. 88–90).
16. The possibility of a US–China military conflict is still felt by many to be a distinct possibility. See Tsang (Citation2006) and Carpenter (Citation2006).
17. During the 1970s some governments saw closer economic relations with socialist countries as an integral part of state-centred development strategies and the diversification of external relations, e.g. Guyana and Jamaica. See Bernal (Citation1986, pp. 607–634).
18. Globally dispersed transnational Chinese business networks are active in trade with China throughout the world. See Weidenbaum and Hughes (Citation1996).
19. The newness and complexity of outbound Chinese tourism is presented in Arlt (Citation2006).
20. Wayne McCook, Jamaica's Ambassador to China, Doing Business in China, Jamaica Stock Exchange Investment and Capital Conference, 2008.
21. China's presence in Latin America is discussed in Arnson et al. (Citation2008).
22. These are set out in Inter-American Development Bank (Citation2005, p. 102).