China in the Americas

IMF Structural Adjustment Programs; Private Creditor Committees; Chinese bilateral loan contracts; Activist Hedge Funds; Paris Club vs China Development Bank. In foreign policy circles there is so much talk about Chinese bilateral loans in Latin America and the Caribbean (and globally). But there seems to be little understanding of the dynamics sovereign debt markets which have important players like private investors and the International Monetary Fund. To discuss all of this we are joined...

U.S Foreign Policy in the Caribbean seldom contemplates Monetary Policy. Domestic currencies in the Caribbean pervert economic freedom. Rather than being seen as economic imperialism, the spread of United States Dollars in the Caribbean should be seen as the spread of economic freedom. I am joined by Dr. DeLisle Worrell, former Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados to discuss why all Caribbean currencies should be permanently retired in favor of adopting the USD as the sole currency...

In this episode I am joined by Ethan Knecht (author of The China-LAC Dispatch) and Mitch Hayes (author of The China Signal) for a roundtable discussion on what we think were the top stories of 2021 as it relates to China-Latin America & the Caribbean relations. Message/Follow me on Twitter: @rasheedguo (for more information on China in the Americas topics) Music: Silver Tongue Devil by Masego ft. Shenseea

Following the 2018 arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou 孟晚舟 on extradition charges to the USA, the political relationship of Canada and China has entered a "Deep Freeze" (as stated by David Mulroney, former Canadian Ambassador to China). In retaliation Chinese authorities arrested two Canadians in China; one of them recently sentenced to 11 years in jail. Earlier this year Canadian parliament declared that the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjing, China amounts to "genocide". What is the current...

How should the embassies of small states be structured to optimize their economic return in relation to China? This episode features Dr. Chelston Brathwaite, Barbados's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China (2014-2017). Prior to that, Dr. Brathwaite served as the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). Show Notes Memories of China: My Eleventh Defining MomentMessage/Follow me on Twitter: @rasheedguo (for more info on China in the...

Earlier this year China published a white paper on its new approach to International Development Finance. Our guest, Stella Zhang, described this white paper as a "landmark document" in Chinese foreign policy. We discuss the implications of the document along with the nuances of how Chinese firms currently approach international contracting projects and financing. How will these firms operate differently going forward? How will Latin America and Caribbean countries capitalize on China's more...

Scott B. MacDonald is a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is also the chief economist at Smith’s Research & Gradings. Prior to that, he was the head of research at MC Asset Management LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation; chief economist for KWR International and an international economic adviser in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, D.C. Show Notes The Return of the Cold War in the CaribbeanIs...

To truly understand Sino-Cuban relations you need to understand the context of Cuba's relations with Venezuela, the US, and the former USSR. Why did USSR become the Patron of Cuba for most of the Cold War? Why did Venezuela step in to support Cuba after the USSR collapse? Just as the last cold war will Cuba be the nexus of the "New Cold War"? We discussed all of these questions. Dr. Bradley J. Murg is Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Director of Research, and...

Kanyi Lui is a Taiwanese-Australian international finance lawyer based in Beijing. He is a Partner at Pinsent Masons with almost two decades of experience advising major financial institutions and borrowers on the development and financing of energy, natural resource, and infrastructure projects in emerging markets. He has particular expertise on projects falling within the ambit of China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI). Kanyi is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the...

Retired Lieutenant General Charles Hooper is the Former Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (2017-2020). LTG Hooper was commissioned in 1979 as an infantryman. Since then his political-military assignments include: Assistant Army Attaché to China; the Deputy Division Chief, War Plans Division; Senior Country Director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense; and U.S. Defense Attaché to the People's Republic of China among other prominent...

It is impossible to have a serious and nuanced conversation on the Caribbean's engagement with China without understanding the historical context of the Caribbean economies. When we study the arc of Caribbean economic history, a wide-scale engagement with China (as the world's largest exporter and soon the largest importer) should not be seen as any kind of hard pivot but instead the continuation of the Caribbean's long-standing trade dynamic. However, we must avoid falling into the trap of...

Barbados is 91% Black. East Asians account for just around 0.1% of the country's population. In this episode I chat with my friend Lin Jiang (Jack) about his experience growing up and living in the Caribbean. He moved to Barbados when we was 7 years old and immediately had to deal with questions of identity and issues of racism that persist until today. Subscribe to China in the Caribbean Newsletter on Substack Message/Follow me on Twitter: @rasheedguo (for more info on China-Caribbean...

From BYD buses in Barbados, Huawei infrastructure in Antigua, Surveillance tech in Jamaica, and ZTE in Cuba, the US-China tech competition dramatically affects the Caribbean. In this episode I am joined by Matt Sheehan to discuss these issues as well as his book: The Transpacific Experiment. He is a Fellow at MacroPolo, a think tank of the Paulson Institute. Follow Matt on Twitter: @mattsheehan88 Show Notes Remaking "Made in China": Beijing's Industrial Internet AmbitionsHow Silicon...

In this episode I am joined by Barbados's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, His Excellency Ambassador Francois Jackman. We discussed several major foreign policy and geopolitical themes centred on the Caribbean's diplomatic posture towards China and the North Atlantic. Ambassador Jackman on Twitter: @francoisjackman Show Notes Barbados Foreign Policy Fifty Years and Beyond The Caribbean also needs to PivotCouncil for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR)Cuba-US-Caribbean...

I'm now an Emergent Ventures Fellow! I've received a generous grant from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The grant will be used to develop this podcast and create more China-Caribbean relations content (newsletter coming soon)! This is all thanks to this episode's guest - Tyler Cowen. He is the Director of the Mercatus Center and an Economics Professor at George Mason University. Tyler is also the coauthor (along with Alex Tabarrok of the Marginal Revolution blog) and host of...

This episode features Wazim Mowla, a Program Assistant at the Atlantic Council Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center Caribbean Initiative. Previously he worked at the Embassy of Guyana and the Embassy of Antigua and Barbuda in Washington DC. Wazim on Twitter: @WMowla Show Notes The Strange Saga of Taiwan's Short-Lived Office in GuyanaCaribbean Basin Security Initiative Recommendations Latin America Confronts the United States: Asymmetry and InfluenceIsland People: The Caribbean and the...

This episode features Parsifal D’Sola, a Chinese Foreign Policy analyst focused on Sino-Venezuelan relations. He is also the Founder and CEO of the Andrés Bello Foundation – China Latin American Research Center based in Bogota, Colombia. Parsifal of Twitter: @pdsola Show notes: China, Venezuela, and the New Silk Road in betweenChina in the LAC: Digital Diplomacy During COVID-19What is PetroCaribe? China-Latin America Finance DatabaseMercosur: South America's Fractious Trade BlocFollow me...

Why did the Black Panthers get offered asylum in China? Why did W.E.B Du Bois change his mind about Mao? In this episode I am speaking with Dr. Keisha Brown about Sino-Black Relations. Dr. Brown is an Assistant Professor at Tennessee State University. She is a historian and Asian studies scholar whose work examines the representations of blackness in Modern China. Dr. Brown on Twitter: @DocKBrown85 Recommendations Teaching China Through Black HistoryBlackness in ExilePhylon in...

In this episode I will be talking with Dr. Evan Ellis on the view from the U.S of China's security engagement with the Caribbean. We discussed China's role in UN Peacekeeping missions to Haiti; the commercial and strategic potential of China building a canal in Nicaragua to compete with the Panama Canal; the scenario space for China building military outposts in the Caribbean; and other topics. Dr. Ellis is a research professor of Latin American studies at the U.S. Army War College...

In this episode I'll be chatting with Jeremy Goldkorn. Jeremy worked in China for 20 years as an editor and entrepreneur. He is Editor-in-Chief of SupChina, and co-founder of the Sinica Podcast. We had a wide ranging conversation about wolf worrier diplomacy, CCP thinking, and how to do nuanced China watching. Jeremy on Twitter: @goldkorn Recommended Reading: A Fearful Asymmetry: COVID-19 and America's Information Deficit with China江时学：“战狼外交”是个伪命题An Ignored Canary in an Unknown Coal Mine:...