Guyanese President Irfaan Ali (left) with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guyana.
Photo by Bert Wilkinson
An angry Chinese government Friday lashed back at fast-growing US and Guyana ties, making it clear that it felt slighted by Thursday’s remarks from Guyanese President Irfaan Ali that the US will get preferential treatment from the oil and gas-rich CARICOM nation over others, especially after Washington pledged to militarily defend Guyana against any attempts by Venezuela to annex a large swathe of Guyanese land.
Ali made his remarks during a joint news conference with American Secretary of State Marco Rubio on a visit to Georgetown. He also flew to neighboring Suriname later in the day, where he weighed into the quality of Chinese engineering on Guyanese mega projects at a press conference in neighboring Suriname, saying that some Chinese companies “do a terrible job. Not a bad job, a terrible job. I just came from Guyana, where we had to drive on a road the Chinese built that.
“We almost all had concussions because the road was so bad – it was terrible – they paid these people to build this road, and then they bring their workers. They bring their workers. They don’t hire you; they bring their workers in to do all the work. And then – or they want you to borrow a bunch of money, and then they hold it over your head.”
However, he also noted that American companies are not showing up in large numbers to cash in on significant investment opportunities, echoing similar remarks by Surinamese President Chan Santokhi. The head of state had suggested that “not all the countries are showing up. We are inviting investors. My invitation to the minister (Secretary) was that we need the private sector of the United States. A lot of those projects, which are implemented in Suriname by Chinese companies, those projects were granted through international procedures,” he said.
Secretary Rubio also suggested that American companies would not come calling if Chinese firms controlled local telecommunications systems. They fear that intellectual and proprietary information can be stolen and systems installed that allow China to spy on American companies.
“So, our goal is twofold to create these options, but not just options that don’t – that – to China; options to work that involve bad workmanship, over budget, with debt attached, and using their own workers instead of yours. That’s the alternative we want to provide in any endeavor we can,” he said.
It appears China was irked by President Ali’s remark at the joint news conference in Guyana earlier on Thursday. Ali stated,” I will say very boldly that such friends must have some different and preferential treatment because a friend who will defend me when I need a friend to defend me must be a friend that enjoys some special place in our hearts and in our country, and that will be the case. ”
Lashing back, the Chinese mission in Guyana opted to boast about development aid in the form of projects and project financing, saying that “China has always put China-Guyana friendship first. We honor our commitment with concrete actions. As a matter of fact, China has participated fully in the biggest economic and social transformation in the history of Guyana. Facts and figures speak louder than anything else.”
Besides engineering companies, the Chinese mega telecommunication company Huawei has won multimillion-dollar contracts in Guyana to install high-tech CCTV cameras in coastal areas, ramping up its presence in the country for almost a decade.
