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A new hospital in western New Providence was supposed to be about healthcare for Bahamians, but it turned into a matter of diplomacy.

As the Bahamas moves forward with a $195 million loan from China’s Export-Import Bank to build a 200-bed hospital, the United States is meddling in the matter, and China has responded.

Both are weighing in and saying very different things.

What the U.S. is saying

The U.S. ambassador Herschel Walker is urging the Bahamas to slow down and take another look at the deal.

Washington asks:

• Is this really in the Bahamas’ best interest?
• Why agree to Chinese labor and legal standards on Bahamian soil?
• Are there better financing options?
• Shouldn’t international norms apply?

The U.S. is positioning itself as a cautionary voice for the Bahamas, raising concerns about long-term costs, transparency, and who really benefits in the end. The US also raises a security concern, with the main contractor flagged by the U.S. Treasury for links to China’s military-industrial complex.

The U.S. says it can help the Bahamas get a “better deal.”

What China is saying

China Ambassador Yan Jiarong’s response is firm and deliberate.

China says:

• This is a livelihood project
• The loan is highly preferential
• The Bahamas asked for this project
• Decisions were made through mutual respect
• There are no geopolitical motives
• Outside countries should not interfere

China frames the hospital as a straightforward development project and not a power play as suggested by the US, emphasizing the Bahamas’ sovereignty and partnership with PR.

They suggest the Bahamas decided this for itself.

Where the Bahamas stands

The United States and China say they are acting in the Bahamas’ best interest.

This is the real balancing act for the government. The Bahamian government is concerned with it being built, jobs, and improved health care.

Prime Minister Philip Davis said his government held talks with the United States but was not satisfied with its outcome.

Herschel Walker, who is Donald Trump’s pick as US Ambassador to the Bahamas, testified at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday, hoping to be confirmed as the first ambassador to the country since 2011.

When Donald Trump tapped him in 2024, he praised his longtime friend, but controversies have plagued Walker. He once claimed to be an FBI agent and falsely claimed to have graduated from the University of Georgia, when in fact he had not completed his degree, instead leaving college to play professional football.

He finally graduated at 62 years old, last December, with a bachelor’s degree in Housing Management and Policy from the University of Georgia.

During a Georgia Senate run against Raphael Warnock in 2022, he campaigned against abortion, but his former girlfriend claimed he gave her $700 for an abortion, rocking his campaign, which he vehemently denied.

Walker has also been accused of domestic violence and physical threats in past relationships, some allegations he denied and others he claimed not to have remembered.

Walker admitted in an advertisement at the height of his 2022 campaign that he battled with mental illness, which he overcame “by the grace of God” and wrote about it extensively in his memoir “Breaking Free”.

Though not necessary, Walker has no previous diplomatic experience and has no connection to the Bahamas.

The Bahamas is a small nation, but it has become politically critical because of the United States’ fears that the country, which is its backdoor neighbor, is cozying up to China.

During his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Walker highlighted China’s perceived influence in the Bahamas and his willingness to help combat drug smuggling operations in the country.

Senator Ted Cruz endorsed Walker as his friend, describing him as someone with “great discipline, dependability, humility and patriotism”.

“He will make a terrific ambassador to the Bahamas,” Cruz said.

Walker, admired in the football arena as a legend, having played for the Dallas Cowboys, and now owns two restaurant businesses, says he sells supplies to the military and schools.

“Throughout my life, many people have underestimated me in academics, athletics and business, and I have always proven them wrong,” he said.

US Prosecutors hit disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with new criminal charges–bribing Chinese government officials with $40 million.

This is the 13th charge added to a growing list of charges against Bankman-Fried since the collapse of his billion-dollar crypto empire.

The newly unsealed indictment alleged that Bankman-Fried conspired to pay off “one or more” Chinese officials to grant him access to his frozen accounts which contained more than $ 1 billion in cryptocurrency in 2021.

Unsealed documents say, “After confirmation that the accounts were unfrozen, Bankman-Fried authorized the transfer of additional tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to complete the bribe.”

This is a violation of the US anti-bribery law. He will be arraigned on the new indictment on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court.

He intends to plead not guilty, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Before the alleged bribery, Bankman-Fried tried other methods to unfreeze the funds–hiring lawyers to advocate for him in China and opening accounts on Chinese exchanges with the use of the personal information of several unnamed people who were reportedly not affiliated with FTX or Alameda Research, according to documents.

Bankman-Fried remains on a $250 million bond under house arrest at his parents’ house in California, and has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy as over one million clients grieve the loss of billions of dollars when he allegedly funneled money from FTX to Alameda Research, his hedge fund.

The 31-year-old lived in the Bahamas where FTX, the 32 billion dollar company was headquartered and it is believed his exchange was “a scheme to defraud customers by misappropriating those customers’ deposits and using those deposits to pay expenses and debts of Alameda Research.”

When China began to scrutinize the cryptocurrency in 2021, Bankman-Fried moved his company’s headquarters from Hong Kong, China to the Bahamas where it was registered by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas and operated under the name FTX Digital Markets.

He said at the time, “The Bahamas is one of the few places to set up a comprehensive framework for crypto,” adding that it“has emerged from COVID lively, safe, and without quarantine.”

In what appeared to be an initial attempt to play up China’s influence in The Bahamas, the United States is now laying it on the line–China did not build its biggest embassy in the Bahamas, as previously stated by US generals at a congressional hearing.

US Generals Laura Richardson and Glen VanHerck made the remark on Wednesday in front of the House Armed Services Committee as they warned of China’s influence in the Bahamas and other Caribbean nations, “neighbours” of the United States.

VanHerck said China is “very aggressive” in the Bahamas,where they have built the biggest embassy in the world, with an ambassador who “uses the information space to undermine us each and every day.”

The Chinese embassy had since hit back on Friday. “It can not be further from the truth to suggest that China has built its largest embassy in world in The Bahamas. We’re not even the largest Chinese embassy in the Caribbean.

“Anyone who is familiar with Nassau knows which embassy is the biggest one on the island.”

And in a social media post, Chinese Ambassador to The Bahamas Dai Qingli said, “What a compliment!” as she showed a CNN news report of the claim.

The US embassy in The Bahamas responded, “The embassy would like to set the record straight: contrary to recent US congressional testimony, the PRC has not built the biggest embassy around the globe in The Bahamas.”

China and US, both world powers at a tense era in its relationship, have been competing for influence in the region but China has long stressed that its influence is based on mutual benefits and needs.

As US-China relations sharply deteriorate, Chinese Ambassador to The Bahamas Dai Qingli is not backing down and hit back at the United States after US generals say China is expanding in The Bahamas, where it has “built its biggest embassy in the world.”

Qingli, in a social media post, made light of the accusations, “What a compliment!”

US and China’s relationship is fraught with tension after a Chinese surveillance balloon was spotted in the US and was eventually shot down last month. Washington also accused China of aiding Russia in its fight for Ukraine.

Now Senior US Generals have accused Qingli of using the information space in the Bahamas to “undermine us each and every day,” prodding US lawmakers to assign an ambassador to the country, since it has not had a permanent US ambassador since 2011.

“We’ve got to pay more attention to this region,” General Laura Richardson, a commander of the US Southern Command, warned on Wednesday, in a committee hearing.

“The proximity matters. They (The Bahamas and Caribbean countries) are on the 20-yard line of our homeland. We are in a neighborhood, these are our neighbors, and we have got to pay attention to them.”

Richardson and General VanHerck, a commander of the US Northern Command told the House Armed Services Committee that China’s expansion in the Bahamas and other Caribbean countries is “aggressive.”

“The [People’s Republic of China] has the capability and intent to eschew international norms, advance its brand of authoritarianism, and amass power and influence at the expense of these democracies,” Gen. Richarson said.

“The PRC has expanded its ability to extract resources, establish port, manipulate governments through predatory investment practices, and build potential dual-use space facilities — the most space facilities in any combatant command region.”

The US and China are two world economic powers that are jostling for the number one spot. The US has long worried that China is gaining major influence in the region, accusing Beijing of pushing smaller countries into “debt traps.”

China has denied it is competing for influence in the region and said that its relationship with The Bahamas and the Caribbean is rooted in mutual benefit and needs.

More than one hundred leaders around the world, including the country’s Prime Minister Philip Davis, gathered in Glasglow, Scotland to fight climate change and address the increase in greenhouse gases which according to experts, are having an adverse effect on small island nations like the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica, where hurricanes are intensifying in frequency and strength.

Leaders like US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson are agitating for countries to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions. However, one cannot help but notice that these leaders and dignitaries are increasing the usage of these gases and can be accused of not practicing what they preach.

Fox News has dubbed the conference, “gas-guzzling get-together.”

Biden arrived in Glasgow in a 21-vehicle motorcade, including 4 planes and a Marine One helicopter, leaving behind his carbon footprint, which contributes to climate change. His arrival in Scotland follows his stay in Rome where an 85-vehicle motorcade accompanied him while releasing tonnes of fumes in the air.

Yet, he preached from the stage in Glasglow, “…No more time to hang back or sit on the fence or argue among ourselves.”

The British press counted more than 400 private jets that are not climate-friendly which huddled on the runway carrying dignitaries and celebrities to Glasgow. Some used limousines, using tonnes of carbon dioxide.

“Conservative predictions suggest the fleet of private jets arriving for COP26 will blast out 13,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in total — equivalent to the amount consumed by more than 1,600 Britons in a year,” the British newspaper the Daily Mail reported.

One individual uses only 8 tonnes of carbon dioxide in one year.

The British Royal Family was also present preaching for countries to do more to combat climate change and Queen Elizabeth delivered a speech by video, “Time for words, have moved to a time for action,” she said.

But her family burns 3,810 tonnes per year, according to reports. This indicates that they are a part of the problem.

The world’s richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was also present advocating that “we must all stand together to protect our world.”

Critics have lambasted him for failing to implement green policies at Amazon, and his journey into space this year, has chalked up a significant amount of fossil fuels.

World leaders have failed to deliver on climate change as the summit has had 25 other summits without solutions to the climate change problem.

They seem not to have the solution to keep the planet from heating up above 1.5 degrees Celsius.

China, was not present at the summit even though it produces the greatest amount of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

At the summit, leaders are praised for their lofty statements and rhetoric but if climate change is real, the small island nations will continue to suffer at the hands of richer nations until concrete proposals are presented and world leaders practice what they preach.

Nearly one hundred Chinese workers from The Pointe Resort, demonstrated in front of the Chinese Embassy on Tuesday morning, demanding to be sent home because their work at the resort is near complete and the rise in the coronavirus cases worries them, said Embassy Counsellor Haigang Yi.

Speaking Mandarin, with hard hats on their heads and masks over their mouths, the orderly group of men walked in a single file to the Chinese Embassy on Shirley Street and camped on the lawn, while Yi addressed their concerns.

Who are they?

The protesters are workers at the $250 million harbor-front project, The Pointe, employed by China’s state-owned company called China State Construction Engineering Corporation, also the builder of the Baha Mar mega-resort.

The state-owned company imported hundreds of workers into the country, as 500 work permits were granted for work on the project.

The protesters represent more than 229 Chinese workers at the site, representative of China’s model of doing business for overseas construction projects. The disproportionate number of Chinese workers to Bahamian workers was in contravention of the Heads of Agreement which promised 70 percent, Bahamian workers, to 30 percent foreign labourers.

They say some of their coworkers have been in the country, working at the site for three years.

The workers usually eat their meals at the construction site and sleep nearby in temporary camps, rather than eat and live in local establishments.

They are often seen walking from the construction site to their accommodations across the street. A yellow school bus has been seen transporting workers from the site.

Why is the protest a surprise?

The public display of displeasure by the workers caught the public by surprise as it is unusual to see the Chinese partake in a public display of frustration in the Bahamas. And even though their worksite is in the center of town, they are never seen on the nearby Long Whalf Beach or walking the commercial stretch.

Secondly, the demands to go back to China because of the rising cases of COVID-19 in the Bahamas, was unusual, since the infectious disease originated in China. The Bahamas once imposed a travel ban on people coming from China because of surging cases in the Asian country.

However, over a few months, China claimed that it gained control of the virus because of its mandatory lockdowns and strong adherence to social protocols.

Now, the Bahamas has been labelled high risk for the virus as Chinese numbers seemed to have dwindled.

What are we not told?

Workers at the protest spoke in Mandarin and the interpretation was done by a representative of the Embassy. The public is not told if payment was another concern of the Chinese workers too.

This is not the first time Chinese workers have demonstrated against the China State Construction company.

Back in 2014, workers gathered on the lawn of the embassy seeking six months of payment after work at Baha Mar, and seeking to be repatriated.

Workers claimed that they had sought the security of the Chinese Embassy after they were threatened when they complained.

What will happen?

The worker’s ability to quickly organize a protest among themselves resulted in the successful bargain of a flight back to their home country. Embassy Counsellor Yi said a flight would be arranged for 200 workers.

These demonstrations attest to the ability of self-organization among foreign workers, where unions are not present in the midst of situations that may seem unfair or unpleasant.

Featured picture credit: The Nassau Guardian