[Epoch Times December 01, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Xu Jian comprehensive report) On Tuesday (November 30), Sandra Mason of Barbados, a Caribbean island nation, was inaugurated as President, replacing The original position of the Queen of England in the country’s head of state.
After Brexit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to increase trade with Commonwealth countries, but evidence suggests that the CCP seems to have infiltrated first. Western foreign policy hawks accuse the CCP of quietly attacking the “weak” Commonwealth countries, while Britain has been “sleeping on the steering wheel” for decades.
The Commonwealth of Nations (Commonwealth of Nations) is an international organization composed of 54 sovereign states, 15 of which are the Commonwealth Kingdoms, which recognize Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as the head of the country, and the other 5 are monarchs with their respective monarchs. Control countries; and the remaining 34 countries are republics.
The British “Daily Telegraph” analyzed that Barbados’s departure from the Commonwealth is not accidental. In recent years, Beijing has invested nearly 500 million pounds in Barbados, equivalent to about one-tenth of its GDP. Barbados also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Communist Party to become part of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
According to the American Enterprise Institute (American Enterprise Institute) data, since 2005, the CCP has invested more than 685 billion pounds in 42 Commonwealth member states. The proportion of investment in recipient countries’ GDP is on average three times that of non-member countries.
The largest recipient of CCP cash in the Caribbean is Jamaica. The CCP has invested 2.6 billion pounds in Jamaica, and the country’s GDP is 16.4 billion pounds.
Throughout the Caribbean, the CCP has provided military and police forces with equipment, including coastal patrol ships, and established a network of Confucius Institutes (including the University of the West Indies in Barbados) to promote its policies. A large number of test agents, masks and ventilators were sent to the region.
According to the analysis of the Daily Telegraph, although Caribbean countries do not possess the minerals or natural resources that the CCP desires, Beijing has always been disturbed by the U.S. military dominance in the Pacific. The region is coveted by Beijing due to its geographical proximity to the United States.
In addition to the quiet economic invasion of Commonwealth countries, according to the Daily Mail report, Chinese investors also spent at least £134 billion on British domestic assets, including investments in private schools, infrastructure (such as airports, power) companies, and rankings. Top British companies etc.
“Debt Trap” and “International Support”
The “Daily Telegraph” commented that by investing huge amounts of money in poor countries such as Barbados and Jamaica, on the one hand, the CCP controls the state-owned assets used as collateral when these countries are unable to repay huge debts; on the other hand, it can deal with many policy issues. Obtain so-called “international support”.
For example, due to its insolvency, Sri Lanka had to sublease 15,000 acres of land in the strategic Hambantota Port and surrounding areas in the southern part of the country to China in 2017, with a lease term of 99 years. This move triggered a lot of condemnation and protests in Sri Lanka.
In addition, when the CCP attempted to pass Hong Kong’s National Security Law last year, it was strongly criticized by Western democracies, but it received support from some countries, such as the Commonwealth Kingdom of Papua New Guinea, Antigua and Barbuda (Antigua and Barbuda). ) With the support of the two countries, the former received 5.3 billion pounds of CCP investment (21% of its GDP), while the latter received 1 billion pounds (60% of its GDP).
Other Commonwealth member states that support Beijing’s suppression of Hong Kong include Sierra Leone (since 2005, CCP’s investment in this country has reached 145% of its GDP), Pakistan (CCP’s investment accounted for 21% of its GDP), Sri Lanka (CCP’s investment accounted for its share of GDP). 17% of GDP), Zambia, Lesotho, Cameroon and Mozambique.
In addition, the CCP is particularly “generous” to those countries that sever ties with Taiwan and turn to Beijing. For example, in 2005, after Grenada (Taiwan called Grenada) severed ties with Taiwan, the CCP provided them with a value of 55 million. A brand new cricket ground for US dollars.
Similarly, in 2018, the Dominican Republic received Chinese investment and loans believed to be as high as US$3 billion after severing ties with Taiwan.
The CCP is targeting the “weak” Commonwealth countries
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, director of the Institute of Human Rights of the International Bar Association and British Queen’s Counsel, told the Daily Telegraph that the CCP used a so-called “making friends” method to influence the vote of the United Nations.
“This has had a serious impact, and it has begun to return to the old Cold War era, which is very detrimental to our development.” She said, “Their investment has indeed begun to penetrate into our (under) domain. We want to strengthen The Commonwealth, not weakened.”
Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, a think tank in London, told the Daily Telegraph that the CCP seems to think the Commonwealth is “weak” and is targeting the Commonwealth.
He said: “They want to do as much damage as possible internationally so that they can focus on attacking a certain country or prevent anti-communist resolutions in the Commonwealth and elsewhere. This is a very cunning move. Our actions are slow. Because there was no real understanding of the extent of its harm at the time.”
Prevent the Chinese Communist Party from entering the UK to strengthen federal investment
Last Wednesday (24th), the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced plans to establish a new institution “British International Investment” (British International Investment) to replace the original “Commonwealth Development Corporation.” She hopes that by encouraging the private sector and Western allies to invest, the agency will provide up to 8 billion pounds in investment to the Commonwealth countries by 2025 instead of the current 1.5 billion pounds per year.
The outside world welcomes this suggestion, but critics say that far can’t quench the near thirst. “For decades, we have completely fallen asleep on the steering wheel,” said Didi Kirsten Tatlow, a senior non-resident researcher of the Sinopsis project in Prague. The Sinopsis project studies the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign policy.
“We fundamentally misunderstood what the Chinese Communist Party is and what it wants. We made mistakes.” He said, “They are using their financial resources to establish strategic dependence wherever possible.”
Tallow said: “(They) control the world around them and provide a way to provide security for totalitarianism, because there is nothing that countries can do about it.”
When Barbados becomes a republic, it will still be a member of the Commonwealth. However, will the future President of Barbados decide to leave the Commonwealth and join other new alliances?
Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, believes that the Commonwealth must be re-strengthened. “Is the Commonwealth a coalition of nations working together, or is it just a random collection of countries without a future?” Mendoza asked. “The wealthier Commonwealth member states should be the main investors in the poorer member states. Now it must be a solution to this. The time has come for the question, or are we making the Commonwealth a legacy?”
The Commonwealth countries complain that they are actually more willing to borrow from the UK or other Western countries, but the CCP provides more convenient conditions. Biyika Lawrence Songa, a member of the Ugandan Parliament, said: “Commonwealth countries including Uganda are rushing to China (the CCP) because it is very easy to obtain funds. For example, if our businessmen want to go It is easy to obtain a Chinese visa if you purchase materials there.” “In contrast, loans in European and American countries have many additional conditions, and visas are more difficult to obtain.”
He said that the UK and Europe “must solve the challenge that prompted the Commonwealth countries to switch to the CCP. This happened because of the lack of alternatives.”
Editor in charge: Lin Yan#
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