Conditional Support: Chinese Development Aid in the Caribbean

Abstract: In recent decades, China has emerged as a major economic power operating within the Caribbean, making the analysis of its foreign policy strategy in the region of paramount importance. This essay will seek to identify the ideology undergirding China’s foreign policy within the Caribbean, using these insights to analyze the effects of Beijing’s increased engagement within the region. This essay will argue that Beijing has sought to create close ties with a number of Caribbean states by launching a slew of generous development assistance projects, attaching conditionalities to these projects to effectively incorporate partner states into their export and ideological network. China views the Caribbean as a valuable political partner, as its proximity to the United States makes its potential alliance with China a prominent counterfactual to Western hegemony. To achieve this argument, I will highlight how China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) has influenced China’s grand strategy within the Caribbean, as it seeks to incorporate the region into a broader economic network to challenge Western economic systems. I will then highlight how economic considerations influence China’s bilateral relations with a number of resource-rich Caribbean states, investigating the diplomatic approach China has used to increase its access to natural resources in the region. Lastly, this essay will investigate how China’s development assistance based strategy has impacted the Caribbean itself. This will cover both its negative and positive effects on domestic industries, while also exploring how China’s ambitious economic expansion has stoked social discontent in the region.