US embassy cable - 04NASSAU1515

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NASSAU 001515 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/11/2014 
TAGS: PREL, OVIP, BTIO, ECON, SCUL, CH, BF, ASEC, China 
SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER CHRISTIE'S CHINA TRIP, THE LATEST 
IN A STRING OF VISITS 
 
REF: A. 03 NASSAU 2124 
     B. NASSAU 1412 
 
Classified By: CHARGE ROBERT M. WITAJEWSKI FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
SUMMARY 
 
1.  (SBU)  Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie will lead 
an official government delegation to China on August 14-21, 
continuing a two-year upswing in diplomatic exchanges between 
The Bahamas and China.  In addition to numerous cultural 
programs, the two nations have exchanged high-level 
delegations to explore business opportunities and strengthen 
diplomatic ties.  The majority of the Bahamian cabinet visits 
have been hosted by the Chinese government -- nominally to 
discuss Chinese support of The Bahamas' membership in the 
World Trade Organization.  Despite being separated by two 
oceans and a continental landmass, China is one of only four 
countries that maintains a resident ambassador in The 
Bahamas.  The Bahamas' largest port facility in Freeport is 
owned and operated by Hong Kong-based Hutchison-Whampoa.  The 
Bahamian press gives generally positive and extensive 
coverage to China and interprets the growing China-Bahamas 
relationship as a sign of The Bahamas' increasing importance 
in the world and friendship with a potential superpower. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
BAHAMIAN DIGNITARIES "FREQUENT FLYERS" TO CHINA... 
 
2.  (C)  Prime Minister Perry Christie is scheduled to visit 
Beijing and Shanghai from August 14 - 21, 2004.  This will be 
the Prime Minister's first official trip to China. 
Accompanying Christie will be his wife and daughter, Minister 
of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, Minister of State for 
Finance James Smith, the Prime Minister's Permanent Secretary 
Ronald Thompson, and two reporters.  An advance team 
consisting of Chief of Protocol Andrew McKinney and Under 
Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Philip Miller 
 
SIPDIS 
has already departed for China.  The Bahamian Foreign 
Ministry has been unwilling to provide details about the 
delegation's itinerary, schedule or meetings, or the purpose 
of the trip. 
 
3.  (U)  The Prime Minister's trip to China is the latest is 
a stream of high-level Bahamian visitors to China since the 
PLP's electoral victory in May 2002.  In the past year, a 
number of Bahamian government officials have visited China 
including Cabinet-level ministers and members of parliament. 
On August 30, 2003, Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell and 
Minister of Transport and Aviation Glenys Hanna-Martin both 
traveled to China.  They met with the Chinese Minister of 
Commerce to discuss World Trade Organization (WTO) issues as 
the Bahamas prepares for WTO membership.  Ministers Mitchell 
and Hanna-Martin also met with China's Minister of Culture. 
While there, the Chinese arranged for Minister Hanna-Martin 
to commission a Chinese-built ship that will be registered 
with the Bahamas' ship registry.  Just two months later in 
October, Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller visited 
Beijing, again ostensibly to promote The Bahamas' accession 
to the WTO. 
 
...AND A WHIFF OF IMPROPRIETY 
 
4.  (C)  Sandwiched between these two cabinet-level visits, 
the then-Executive Chairman of the Bahamas Agricultural and 
Industrial Corporation (BAIC), Sidney Stubbs, led a trade and 
investment mission to China in September 2003 (Ref A). 
Stubbs, controversy, and hints of scandal have been linked 
almost from the first day of Stubbs' election as a PLP member 
of parliament. 
 
5.  (U)  In January 2000, the government hired a team of 
auditors to examine the books of BAIC to determine the 
spending habits of executives and the overall financial 
standing of the institution.  Chinese business interests 
reportedly promised to reimburse the Bahamian government for 
the $52,000 in expenses the delegation incurred making the 
trip, but to date no payment has been made.  In presenting 
their rationale for the trip to China, BAIC executives noted 
that, "In view of China's growing importance to global trade 
and the wealth, which is being generated in the Chinese 
economy, China is a source of investment funds and should be 
courted to make more direct investments in the economy of The 
Bahamas." 
 
6.  (C)  As a result of his alleged discrimination against 
BAIC employees who were supporters of the previous 
government, Stubbs was forced to resign his position shortly 
after the China trade mission, and has subsequently been 
threatened with dismissal from Parliament due to a bankruptcy 
judgment against him (Ref B).  In addition, the 
scandal-plagued Stubbs was stopped in September 2003 by U.S. 
Customs in a California airport on his way to China during a 
random inspection and was discovered to be carrying an 
attach chase containing multiple Chinese passports with 
Bahamian visas.  Stubbs claims that these visas were to be 
given to a Chinese trade delegation who were scheduled to 
hold an international trade conference on Andros island, a 
sparsely populated island with little to no commercial 
enterprise.  (NOTE: The joint U.S.-UK undersea testing 
facility, AUTEC, is located on Andros.) 
 
CHINESE PRESENCE IN THE BAHAMAS 
 
7.  (C)  China is one of four countries to maintain resident 
ambassadors in The Bahamas.  Ambassador Dongcun Jiao 
presented his credentials to Governor General Dame Ivy Dumont 
on August 21, 2003.  During the swearing in, Governor General 
Dame Ivy Dumont thanked the Ambassador for his country's 
assistance in the areas of education, agriculture, fisheries 
and the arts.  Ambassador Jiao noted that the Bahamas and 
China have coordinated with and supported each other in 
international affairs.  He further stated that the Chinese 
government is ready to make concerted efforts with the 
Bahamian government to build a China-Bahamas relationship of 
all-round cooperation in the interest of mutual development. 
Currently, the exceptionally large Chinese embassy in The 
Bahamas, given the paucity of bilateral business to conduct, 
consists of an Ambassador and six accredited diplomats.  For 
its part, The Bahamas maintains a Consul General in Hong Kong 
but has announced that, following PRC suggestions, it will be 
establishing an embassy in Beijing and closing its consulate 
in Hong Kong. 
 
8.  (C) The largest Chinese investment in The Bahamas is the 
$1 billion Freeport container port owned and operated by Hong 
Kong-based Hutchison-Whampoa.  Chinese dignitaries traveling 
to the Bahamas always visit Freeport and the port. 
Hutchison-Whampoa employs only five Chinese citizens in its 
Freeport facility, all in a management capacity. 
 
9.  (U) Madam Wu Yi, State Councilor to the People's Republic 
of China accompanied by a delegation of 30 people, including 
six Chinese business leaders, visited The Bahamas in January 
2003.  During her visit to Nassau, Madam Wu presented the 
Bahamian government with a grant of $250,000 for various 
technical, agricultural, handicraft and cooperative projects. 
 Additionally, a delegation of Chinese government officials 
visited Nassau on June 19, 2004, to finalize plans for the 
Chinese to grant the Bahamian government $20 million for 
construction of a national stadium. 
 
COMMENT 
 
10.  (C) The Bahamas' political and economic ties to China 
remain modest.  Bilateral trade flows have increased, 
reaching approximately $95 million for the first eight months 
of 2003, and investment projects such as the Freeport port 
facility are always welcome.  Some local commentators would 
like to believe that The Bahamas should attempt to use China 
as a counter-balance to the U.S.  It is more likely, however, 
that Bahamian officials are merely using their moment in the 
Chinese spotlight to push for kinder WTO accession terms (at 
least as a starting point for negotiations with the other 
members) and to pick up whatever spare trade and investment 
projects a country of over one billion people can offer.  For 
their part, the Chinese in The Bahamas may be a strategic 
move preparing for a post-Castro Caribbean. 
WITAJEWSKI