Prime Minister Gaston Browne has staunchly defended Antigua and Barbuda
relationship with the People’s Republic of China and he has rubbished suggestions
that the country will soon be ‘colonised’ by China.
Speaking on the Browne and Browne show on Pointe FM on Saturday, PM
Browne dismissed the suggestion as nonsensical as China does not have a history
of colonizing any country.
Rather, according to the prime minister, China under President Xi Jinping has
developed a philosophy of ‘shared future development for all peoples’. Through
that philosophy, PM Browne noted that China has made available US$1 trillion
annually in soft loans to help developing countries, which doubles what both the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank give when their budgets are
combined.
“For those who are saying that we may be colonized by China, I ask them, what
country has China ever colonized. The irony is, those countries that did in fact
colonise us, if they lend us money, its fine, if China lends us money, it’s a debt-
trap. That’s illogical,” he exclaimed.
The prime minister gave as an example negotiation with the World Bank in the
wake of Hurricane Irma where the government was seeking a loan of EC$100
million for restoration efforts on the sister island. He said the World Bank offered
the loan at 4 percent over ten years with stipulations on how the money could be
used. Conversely, the loans for the airport and the seaport were valued at over
EC$500 million. Yet, each loan was for over 20 years repayment at 2 percent
interest with five-year moratoria each. “Who is colonizing who?” PM Browne
asked rhetorically.
The prime minister also addressed the issue of the opening of the Antigua and
Barbuda embassy in China. In response to a UPP operative who claimed that the
government ‘rushed’ to open the embassy.
In dismissing that claim, PM Browne described China as Antigua and Barbuda’s
most important developmental partner at this time. “We have embassies in
countries where we don’t get the type of assistance that we get from China, what is
wrong about opening an embassy in a capital from which we get this level of
developmental assistance,” he queried.
He also disclosed that the PRC is making available the embassy office space to the
government free of cost ‘for a few years’ so that for now, it does not cost the
government anything. An ambassador who will be resident in China will soon be
named.
