China in the Caribbean community: the impact of Beijing's foreign-policy from the Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago perspective (2011-2016)

Of all the developments in the international system since the Second World War, few have had greater impact on world affairs than the dissolution of European colonial empires and the formation of over a hundred new states today. For Latin American and Caribbean countries, this was no different, the latter being among the world's smallest independent nations. With these countries gaining independence in the 1960s, came stimulated debates in the international community about small states. Discussions such as small states 'viability and vulnerability' not only as an issue of political and economic capability, but also as a matter of foreign policy and diplomacy. While the Caribbean's foreign policy over the aforementioned period has been linked to the United States (US) and Europe, the new millennium has seen a marked shift in which the role of the People's Republic of China (PRC) has become increasingly important in the region. It is well known today that China is the most rapidly emerging economy in the world. It is a robust economy that has translated its influence into political, diplomatic and cultural domains. As such, the PRC plays a decisive role in East Asia's development and integration, influencing global economy indicators and broader international affairs. While there is comprehensive literature dealing with China's role and involvement in Asia, US, Europe, Latin America and Africa, it is obvious that there is a significant gap concerning China's involvement in the Caribbean and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and what can be viewed as a virtual omission of CARICOM nations' elites-perspective on China. Due to the substantive absence in the literature of a comprehensive study of this subject and an increasing knowledge base on China's foreign policy for CARICOM nations, this research seeks to explore, from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago's elites' perspective the implications of China's emergence on the sub-region's intra-regional political and economic relations between 2011 and 2016, along with its impact on CARICOM countries' relations with traditional partners such as the US and the EU. Drawing on the holistic constructivist approach that uses the analytical political theory as a methodological framework, the investigation finds that China is seen as a tool for development at a time when the region is experiencing an abandonment from the United States and Europe. While elites in both cases accept that closer ties with China and increased PRC activities in their countries could result in backlash from the US, they hold fast to the notion that their countries are too loyal to the US to accept China as a new hegemon. The underlying reason for their relationship with China, the dissertation finds, is one that emerges from need/necessity.