A major think tank in Washington, D.C. says the United States is moving to curtain China’s economic investment in the Caribbean.
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) – a nonprofit independent research and information organization, established in 1975 by former director Larry Birns to promote the common interests of the hemisphere, raise the visibility of regional affairs, and increase the importance of constructive inter-American relationships – said that although China’s investment and trade with Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are minimal in comparison to other states in the region, US officials have expressed “an urgent need for US reengagement with the Caribbean region – where historically this sort of engagement by the US was only used to counter ‘threats’ like communism, socialism, Black Power, and any expression of anti-imperialism.
“These left leaning movements challenge US interests in maintaining a global capitalist system that supports liberal theories of development via free-trade, open-markets, and privatization, for the states in its backyard’”, it said. “Washington considers growing Chinese economic ties in the region at odds with US interests.”
