Chinese influence

May 15, 2026 Editorial, News

Editorial

(Kaieteur News) – US Congressman, Gabe Evans, arrived late at the party. The Coloradan Republican spoke of “creeping Chinese influence” in Guyana. He took matters further and put two key PPPC Government leaders in the spotlight:“ how the US cannot afford to lose resource rich Guyana.” We live here, so we are neighbours to this “creeping Chinese influence”, except that it is now at a much more comprehensive level. Expansive and still expanding Chinese influence in Guyana is closer to the facts in the environment.

A visit to any community, an endless number, across Guyana, and there is sure to be a Chinese presence. A massive one, as evidenced by an all-purpose commercial operation. Hardware shops, supermarkets, and restaurants, sometimes gigantic, dominate city blocks and tower as commanding presences in outlying areas. In a sense, the Chinese presence is a bittersweet experience for Guyanese. The good news is that consumers are able to obtain a variety of cheaper goods under one roof.

Whatever the laments about the quality and working life of these products, they are available and within budget. The worrying news is that many Guyanese businesses have been put out of business. City business people have complained for years on how they are disadvantaged, through being unable to compete, and having had to closeup shop. They have complained of unfair importation practices, only to have such fall on deaf ears. Others have made a connection of some of these businesses to Chinese State agencies, which gives them a vastly superior edge relative to funding and other resources, which smaller Guyanese businesspeople cannot compete with.

These are among the problems that has been a source of concern for the US itself, and which was articulated by Congressman Evans. PPPC Government leaders are too close to the Chinese, and seems to be coddling them just a little too much. The Chinese influence (“creeping” according to Congressman Evans) is not of small entrepreneurs as in the days of old, but mega businesses with the weight of the Chinese state behind them. To describe more bluntly, the people in charge of these Chinese businesses in Guyana are fronts for the Xi Jinping group. There seems to be some substance to these positions, because in moving from the village and corner shop level, there are Chinese companies heavily involved in the building of hospitals and bridges, in extensive mining operations deep in Guyana’s rich mineral locations in the interior. A recent news item announced that the Chinese are now seeking fishing licences. When laid from end to end, the Chinese represent not an accidental presence, but more of an influential one, and the extents of which are still not fully known.

An alarming reality for us at this paper is the fact that over 20% of Guyana’s external debt has been sourced from the Chinese. Even when looked at charitably, that cannot be a healthy situation, and this is regardless of US unease about a growing Chinese presence in strategic areas of its own backyard. From a purely Guyanese point of view, this country has too much debt, and too much of its indebtedness is with the Chinese. This places Guyana is a vulnerable position, one which both President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, seem to take casually, and with a shrug: so what? These two leaders have been bubbly in their praising of the long and mutually beneficial relationship between Guyana and China, which has its many bright points of light. This is nothing new from both leaders when they seek to cover over a helpful relationship. For a long time, Cuba was celebrated by the likes of Ali and Jagdeo, and look where Cuba is today, now that Guyana is in play.

Plainly speaking, we think that the president and vice president are giving short thrift to what has handicapped Guyana in these power relationships it has cultivated. They always seem to be one-sided, with Guyana as the proven loser on a consistent basis. We recommend that both President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo, especially the latter, listen to Congressman Evans who is digging, casting stones, and signaling US discomfort with Chinese influence in Guyana. Evans could be speaking for more than himself.

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Chinese influence, Editorial, Gabe Evans, PPPC

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