China-Barbados Relations Strengthen with Model Partnership, Achieving Fruitful Results

Forty-seven years of China-Barbados relations are at their “best in history”, yielding a model partnership of mutual respect, equality and benefits, Ambassador Yan Xiushen said on Thursday at a symposium marking the 47th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Ambassador Yan added that Beijing and Bridgetown have accelerated their relations to a new level, achieving fruitful results, as he reflected on the past year which included an official visit to China by Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the invitation of Premier Li Qiang last June.

“The Sam Lord’s Castle Hotel with preferential loan from China has been completed and put into use. The Scotland District Road Rehabilitation Project, also with preferential loan from China, is underway in full swing. The [implementation agreement for the] China-Aid National Stadium Redevelopment Project has been signed. The main structure of the China-Aid Centre for Food Security and Entrepreneurship Project in Barbados has been substantially completed. Hunan Province of China has cooperated with Barbados in upland rice planting and agricultural technology training, donating 180 solar street lights and three tractors to Barbados,” said Ambassador Yan.

In addition, he noted that the sixth batch of Chinese medical teams are providing medical services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital while the inter-university cooperation between The Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Central South University, Hunan Normal University, and China University of Political Science and Law has created a broader platform for education cooperation between China and Barbados.

Barbados’ second resident ambassador to China between 2014-2017, Dr Chelston Brathwaite told the gathering at the Chinese Embassy in Christ Church that he is pleased to see the fruits of the strategic relationship that a small country like Barbados has with a large country like China.

He highlighted the relationship between the UWI and the Suzhou Institute of Technology to train software engineers in China. There are currently 20 Caribbean students being trained in China.

“It is initiatives such as this where China and Barbados could partner and could help each other using the advanced technologies that exist in China to help Barbados in leapfrogging, in moving forward in the technological exploitation of the 21st century,” Dr Brathwaite said.

At the heart of Barbados-China relations is the Confucius Institute at UWI where Chinese language and culture are taught.

Co-directors at the institute, David Bulbulia and Professor Nie Lu shared that Mandarin was being taught across the country, including at three primary schools – St Stephen’s Primary, Charles F Broomes and St George Primary School – and at Ellerslie School.

The two countries have also built strong cultural ties through the work of the Association for Barbados-China Friendship of (ABCF) of which former Central Governor Dr Delisle Worrell is president.

“Anyone who has visited China will attest to the fact that their experiences and the things they have discovered about daily life and lifestyles have completely changed the picture they had about China and the Chinese,” Dr Worrell said.

“The mission of the ABCF is to expose many more Barbadians and Caribbean people to something of that experience by bringing to them news and information about happenings in China, the lives of ordinary people, and interesting aspects of modern Chinese culture and society.”

Ambassador Yan reminded the gathering that the bilateral relationship between Barbados and China has steadily progressed based on the one-China principle that has global support.

“There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. The Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. The one-China principle is a universal consensus of the international community and a basic norm in international relations. One hundred and eighty-three countries in the world have established and are advancing diplomatic relations with China on the basis of the one-China principle,” he said.

He added that China appreciates Barbados’ stance in upholding the one-China principle and pledged that Beijing will fully support the interests of developing countries, including the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative to advance peace, security and progress for the world.

(SD)