United States hegemony is on steroids with the election of Donald Trump last November. The Monroe Doctrine is back. Might is right. The West is the US’s vassal until Europe is able to cut the umbilical cord with the country.
Meanwhile, Caribbean countries have always been a type of US backyard. Today, they have to choose between China and the US in a finely balanced dance. That is the latest demand from the White House.
If China is a Caribbean leader’s first choice in terms of external relations, then there may be consequences. A Caribbean state aligning with China may face penalties such as visa denials, denial of US dollar access, aggressive border controls, tariffs and even blockades.
Some Caribbean leaders, however, have pushed back. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, for instance, stated that she would not have a problem if denied a US visa.
Cuban doctors
Evidence of the Monroe Doctrine is in the US demand that Caribbean countries refuse to allow Cuban medical doctors into their borders or face penalties such as visa refusals for government officials. The Caribbean fully understands the power of the US to inflict pain and suffering on the region. Wise West Indians always have. The US wields a big stick here.
Mr. Trump is the classic Ugly American of folklore — the one satirised by the Trinidadian calypso that quips, “Drinking Rum and Coca Cola; going down Point Koomahnah; both mother and daughter; working for the Yankee dollar.”
The US, meanwhile, is the giant of a neighbour in the north who has wielded a big stick to lay claim to the western hemisphere. Mr. Trump believes he owns the Americas: north, central and south. One caveat: the US stock exchange is nervous at his bluster and bombast. Stock prices have plunged. Investors, who ultimately run things, are nervous. There is even talk of a Trump-induced recession approaching. Mr. Trump’s billionaire backers have lost billions of dollars from his rhetoric and love for imposing tariffs that are making the US hated by international consumers. There are signs US voters are having buyer’s remorse already.
Chinese threat
China is the one threat to US hegemony. China is a very old civilisation that after decades of humiliation in the 1800s has restored its power and sits as a hegemon in its own right in the Asian Pacific. Ironically, however, China does not appear to be seeking global supremacy like the US.
China has never been a colonial or neo-imperial power. According to its own narratives and history, its demands over Taiwan are justified. The US, on the other hand, has been engaged in wars and conflict for decades in all four corners of the globe. These wars have been over resources such as oil, land and ideology — against communism especially. The US is an empire in the classic mould.
Now, the Chinese Communist Party adopts the Chinese model of state capitalism that allows free internal trade at the street level. However, China remains an autocratic state ruled by a dictator.
In his latest assertion, China’s Communist Party Leader Xi Jinping stated that he is ready for war with the US. China will fight the US every step of the way in the Pacific. War in Asia between both superpowers may be inevitable.
