US alarmed by Chinese investment in Bahamas

(The Guardian): American diplomats feared heavy Chinese investment in the Bahamas, including in a luxury hotel, would destabilise US influence in a post-Castro Caribbean, according to leaked state department cables. Chinese banks invested $2.5bn in the 1000-acre Baha Mar hotel complex in April 2010, one of several Sino-Bahamian deals which cables suggest the US embassy monitored closely. Diplomats were frightened the investment would leave the Bahamian government "indebted to Chinese interests for years to come", a cable from September 2009 reveals. They also repeated Bahamian politicians’ fears that "China is using this investment solely to establish a relationship of patronage with a U.S. trading partner less than 190 miles from the United States."

The embassy had been concerned for several years about China’s involvement in the Bahamas. They previously worried that Chinese activity in the Bahamas constituted "a strategic move [in preparation] for a post-Castro Caribbean", and questioned China’s interest "in a country where apart from geography, there would seem to be few mutual cultural, tourist, economic, or political interests", according to cables from 2003 and 2004.

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