The China we never knew

Oct 22, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor,

To appreciate Guyana-China relations we need to situate that relationship in a historical and contemporary context.

At school, we learnt that the first Chinese labourers were brought to British Guiana by the British in 1853 to replace African slave labour on the sugarcane plantations.

That project proved an abysmal failure. Instead, Chinese immigrants took to grocery, restaurant and laundry businesses and succeeded. Since then, the Chinese have been accepted as an integral part of Guyanese society.

The entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese became part and parcel of the Guyanese way of life. Both freed slave and indentured immigrant seeing opportunities inherent in entrepreneurship took it up as a means of eking out a living. The entrepreneurial spirit soon spread throughout the country amongst other immigrant communities.

Then came the proliferation of political parties in the colony beginning from the 1950’s, their articulation of anti-colonial policies and pro-independence demands, reflecting various philosophical and ideological outlooks at a time when the Chinese only five years earlier had defeated Japanese expansionists and Hitlerite fascism and in 1949 declared the establishment of People’s Republic of China.

The PRC led by the communist party, was confronted from the early days with the stereotyping by western elites and media houses as ‘communist China with a dictatorial/authoritarian regime.’

Sixty-five years ago, the diet that was fed to Guyanese by the anti-communists of that era was one of deep suspicion and rejection of ‘Red or communist China’ that could not be trusted.

It was easy in those days to get away with such nonsense because of the virulent anti-communist propaganda that prevailed worldwide, the limited media coverage of China’s achievements as well as the lack of political and ideological awareness of people living under conditions of colonial rule.

The mischaracterization of China became the weapon of choice for ruling elites who, at the domestic level, fought against the political forces and individuals who chose to openly champion and speak out in favour of the Chinese model for social and economic advancement.

Visits to China by progressive political organizations and leaders seeking a better understanding and appreciation of China’s socialist path resulted in them being targeted and branded back home as ‘communist agents.’

As time rolled on, and with the creative application of Marxism as a guide, not a dogma, the Chinese communists in 1979 declared China as ‘One Country, Two Systems.’ Three years later, its leaders declared in favour of ‘Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.’

In 1972, Guyana was the first country in the English-speaking Caribbean to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC and to recognise China’s ‘One China’ foreign policy based on peace, equality and mutual respect amongst nations.

The relationship was buttressed by emphasizing ‘people-centered development’ and by extending developmental cooperation projects with countries in the Global South. Chinese financed projects were viewed as encroachments on the West’s so-called ‘sphere of influence’ not to be challenged by ‘outsider nations.’

As China overcame major developmental challenges and grew stronger economically and technologically with emphasis on human development, old attitudes and policies of hostility towards China premised on anti-communism gave way to a more enlightened approach to China by developing countries driven by their own self interests.

Sixty-five years later, the same communist China that was once shunned and ignored in favour of the industrialized North has been welcomed to Guyana. Major development projects within the meaning of the Belt and Road Initiative have been undertaken including the Bharrat Jagdeo Demerara River Bridge.

Moreover, Chinese business enterprises have mushroomed around the country much to the convenience of the Guyanese people.

History has a way of teaching us many lessons one of them being; to focus on the big picture and what unites us rather than what divides us.

Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee

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The China we never knew

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