Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan address the third China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Sept. 12, 2011.  [Xinhua photo]

The fast pace of growth of cross-Straits ties has virtually caught the LAC region off-guard. Many leaders are still trying to understand the evolving cross-Straits relationship and most ordinary people are still frozen in the time warp of former hostilities. Not much is known or said of the 1992 Consensus or the mutual cross-Straits agreement, which define what "One China" means. Yet the LAC region has been a prime historical player in the politics that helped shape earlier cross-Straits tensions.

Of the 26 governments that recognize Taiwan, 12 are from the LAC region -- seven in Latin America and five in the Caribbean. They all worry about the eventual implications of China's relentless pursuit of peaceful reunification. They aren't too sure how to handle the fact that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan are no longer rattling sabers. Until the necessary political recalibrations are made on all sides, such worries will persist.

There's also the matter of the proportional displacement of the Caribbean within the LAC region. The real picture of China-Caribbean trade usually gets lost in the overall gross calculations of China's trade and economic relations with the LAC region. Actual China-Caribbean trade is much smaller in volume and value, more one-way and mainly business-oriented. But while Caribbean businesses are calling for and gearing up to do more business with China, academics are pointing to several untapped Caribbean resources that can be developed on the basis of win-win cooperative partnerships with China -- including its vast potential as a tourism destination and its gateway status as a trade bridge to both North and South America.

In 2013 and beyond, China and the Caribbean (CARICOM) will have to develop ways and means of building new bilateral and multilateral relationships. But what forms can China-Caribbean relations take?

An increasing number of Caribbean thinkers have been identifying possible new areas of China-Caribbean engagement.

At a 2010 "People-to-People Friendship Forum" attended by delegates from China and LAC countries in Fuzhou (Fujian Province), the UWI's Director of External Relations, Anthony Fisher, recommended several "scientific and technical knowledge transfer arrangements," along with "increased communication" and "building and strengthening people-to-people ties." He also proposed collaboration between various Chinese universities and the UWI.

Fisher still believes that China can help the Caribbean "tap into its network of global knowledge to create marketable products, processes and services." He proposes "creative and innovative cooperation through viable venture capital partnerships" through which China could "assist the Caribbean to harness its untapped sources of renewable energy, help it create biofuels and harness the vast untapped marine resources of the Caribbean Sea."

Specific areas of China-Caribbean cooperation recommended by Fisher include: research to help conserve, restore and commercialize the Caribbean's vast marine space; oceanic industries such as wave energy and bio fuels; coral reef transplants to create, sustain and generate sustainability of the region's vast marine eco-system; and venture capital partnerships in oceanic mining and drilling and management of fishing resources.

Fisher's recommendations are largely supported by Caribbean academia. But China and the Caribbean, over the next decade, will need to identify new areas of cooperation to generate the effective changes and developments needed to propel the Caribbean's sail through the rough seas of the worsening global economic climate. Latin America will be expected to do the same, considering that the LAC region has historically stood by and with China in the international arena. As such, China needs to recalibrate its LAC strategy to reflect both the changing times and its increasing role as global defender and promoter of the causes of the developing world.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.ccgp-fushun.com/opinion/earlbousquet.htm

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