Too much “Kung Fu”?!

The March 15, 2008 edition of The Economist Magazine was titled "The New Colonists," on the cover was Mao Zedong with the Chinese flag leading a camel caravan through an Arabian desert. The story explained how China's seemingly insatiable thirst for natural resources is leading to a Chinese foreign policy, that matched many early colonist, no different from Spain, Portugal, France, and Great Britain in their early colonial exploits. Today, it’s the Chinese who appear to be “The New Colonist” by strategically investing in many developing countries around the world.  The Bahamas and the People’s Republic of China appeared to have truly begun “dating” in public; On November 15 to 17, 2009 the Bahamas was visited by His Excellency Yikang Jiang, Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.  The purpose of his visit, depending on whom you ask, and which country you ask, was to enhance relations between both countries and foster a better understanding diplomatically and politically.  Minister Brent Symonette said it was a pleasure to welcome Mr. Yikang to The Bahamas, the third Chinese official to visit that year. His Excellency Hui Liangyu, Vice Premier in the State Council visited in February, His Excellency Wu Bangguo, visited in September 2009.  The Governments of The Bahamas and the People’s Republic of China signed three agreements on Friday, September 4, 2009. This is now.

History in the Bahamas must give naturalized Bahamians of Chinese ethnicity their credit in building a better Bahamas.  With a financial support structure based on internal cultural lending, money in their “other” pocket, keeping a very low visibility with limited participation in the daily Bahamian public, they ran their casinos at home and aided other Chinese migrating through the Bahamas in stealth fashion. They respectfully cooperated and obeyed the law eventually working their way to economic empowerment by “their” traditional means. Gayle Saunders and Michael Craton in their masterpiece entitled Islands in the Stream noted that it was around 1879 when a Chinese migrant from Cuba named Pang Yuong opened a small restaurant on East Bay Street with extreme resistance from the then Bay Street merchants. The majority of the Chinese who found permanency in the Bahamas today arrived during the 1920’s by way of the West Indies. The Chinese, like the other earlier non-English speaking migrants, immediately discovered their biggest advantage in this young virgin colony, was their language, frugality, and their silent business network, often communicated in a language not known to this colony.  Therefore, the majority of Bahamians for an instant became foreigners in their own country when doing business with the migrant Chinese merchant who may have just arrived through a “network of silence”. The Chinese by many means bought and opened up various businesses in the center of many indigenous and traditional Bahamian neighborhoods.  Almost 100 years later, we witnessed Minister Brent Symonette welcome Mr. YiYang in 2009, when just as a reminder in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s as documented, the Merchants and Wholesalers of Bay Street resisted and did not allow the Chinese migrants entry. That was then.

Nothing in this life is free, and history has far too many examples to illustrate that no country in history gives gifts without the expectation of eventually receiving something in return. Many “real” patriotic Bahamians are beginning to raise their eyebrows with nationalistic skepticism, wondering what does the Bahamas have that China needs, want, or may demand in the very near or distant future?  It may not be today, but you can be assured that China may one day ask to put a nuclear submarine testing facility in Andros, or a very large private farm in Abaco, Andros or Eleuthera, or ask for fishing rights in the Bahamas along with entering a Chinese Junkanoo Group in the Boxing Day parade. They already strategically control one of the largest shipping ports in the world located in Grand Bahama.  In March 2009, the Exim Bank of China financed the stalled Baha Mar hotel project.  The Chinese are funding the construction of a new $30 million sports stadium in New Providence and are providing more than $100 million in road construction projects. It is expected, and raising many fears that an influx of migrant workers from China may be mismanaged by some individuals in respective government agencies as was done in the past with many other silent ethnic groups who have made the Bahamas their home for convenience or commerce. Could indigenous Bahamians as we know them today become the minority culture in their own homeland? Could the next Bahamian leaders bear the names Hon. Mao Zedong Christie, or Hon. Toussaint L’ouverture Ingraham? Bahamians must realize that it has been alleged that “The Panda” may have two faces, and China like many other world leading countries will strong arm The Bahamas into submission, if their demands are not adhered to when called upon for favors in return, it may be just a matter of time. History has given sufficient evidence, and our Bahamian leaders must decide how much, and how we will manage this economic injection and migration from the Far East, as this may just be “too much” or “just enough Kung Fu” for our Bahamian traditional “Rake and Scrape”.

Anthony U. Bostwick Jr