China Expanding fresh Outpost In Antigua & Barbuda, Alarming The Pentagon

U.S. officials are profoundly alerted at fresh reports that China is greatly expanding its economic, diplomatic, and possible even military presence in the island paradise region of the Caribbean, just off America’s doorstep.

Newsweek Say it has in its session led papers which show China has established a probing economical region and outpost on Antigua and Barbuda, and has “secured privileges that resemble that of a tiny state.’

This means that from this location lying just 220 miles from the US Virgin Islands, Beijing could grow its espionage capabilities, akin to what is already happening in close Cuba, where China is in negotiations with the Cuban government to establish a fresh joint military training facility on the island.

Image via US State Department

United States confederate Command (SOUTHCOM), which is based in Doral, Florida (near Miami) and oversees US operations and safety in Central and South America and the Caribbean says that China is likely utilizing its state-owned enterprises to conduct intelligence-gathering, just as in another parts of the world.

‘Given the breadth of investment into logistics infrastructure China has made in the Caribbean, we are agreed that China could task its state-owned enterprises and diaspora to conduct intelligence or influence operations against the U.S. and our partners in the region for military purposes,’ SOUTHCOM said in a statement.

"This deals are further heightened erstwhile you consider the Chinese Communist Party's practice of targeting, recruiting and bribing officials," it continued.

The selected corporate papers reviewed by Newsweek indicate the followinging:

This natural paradise on the island of Antigua, where officials will survey the thoughts of Xi Jinping, is about to be razed for a Chinese-run peculiar economical zone. Accepting to papers reviewed by Newsweek it will have its own customs and immigration formalities, a shipping port and a dedicated airline and will be able to issue passports. It will establish business offering everything from logistics to cryptocurrencies, facial surgery to “virology.”

Already this has had a chilling effect in any places locally:

Increasingly, People were afraid to talk out about the floating relation especially if they did business through the China-built shipping port in St. John’s, she told Newsweek: “Everybody feels like their tricks are in a visit; that if you say the incorrect thing, if you ally yourself the incorrect way, you’re putting yourself in danger.” Isaac Said. “At night, I control on my alarm and say my Prayers.”

"China, its state-owned companies and associated private businesses are expanding rapidly in the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda and in another Caribbean countries in this strategical region long known as 'America's 3rd border,' according to a Newsweek investment of government and corporate papers as well as well as interviews with Antiguan leaders,' the publication continued.

PM Gaston Browne of Antigua meets with president Xi Jinping in Beijing, January 2024. handout

Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne has rejected Newsweek’s reporting as follows: “This cold war rhetoric going back to the relation between the USSR and the USA, They are now trying to make and trying to usage this sensational specification that the PRC (People's Republic of China) is now trying to usage Antigua and Barbuda as a base.

‘This is utter nonsense,’ Browne continued while emphasizing “we will never enter into any arrangement with any country to wholesale another. Much little to wholesale a country like the United States in which we are so dependent on their tourism, we are dependent on their trade and investment.” He added: “It will be like Hurting ourselves. So protecting the US is protecting our own national interest.”

Some analysts have specified that China’s interest in the Caribbean is related to the standoff over Taiwan and that Beijing wishes to counterbalance the global geopolitical board. For example, the level of US military and intelligence infrastructure in place across the South China Sea and among Washington’s regional allies not far off China’s coast, even corporately entered on the island of Taiwan, are already identified and growing. For American national safety officials, Monroe Doctrine assessments are inactive alive and well, and profoundly integrated. It apps Beijing is importantly challenging that.