The strategic location of the State of Haiti in the gate of the Gulf of Mexico, close to the southeastern border of the United States by about a thousand square kilometers, and its view of strategic waterways is very similar to Taiwan's view of the waterways in the China Sea southeast of the globe, and the historical relationship between the United States and Haiti since its establishment in 1804 as the second republic in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States, which extended its hegemony over the various political, economic and security affairs of the State of Haiti, and did not These reasons were not what made the US administration put Haiti at the top of the list of fragile states in its next strategic plan to stop the conflict and promote stability, but the real reasons lie in the conflict of the major strategic interests of the United States with its competitors, this time not with the Soviet Union, but in the face of China, which the United States admitted that it had become its biggest competitor at the stage. current.
Congress has warned of the implications of destabilization within Haiti and the Caribbean, and that it could prompt Haiti to open its doors to political interference by China. The lawmakers wrote that the Chinese Communist Party would seek to capitalize on Haiti's political turmoil to further marginalize U.S. and Taiwanese interests.
Continued international and U.S. support
The United Nations has been working in Haiti for decades, through its 19 agencies and funds, as well as the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). From 2001 to the present, the United Nations and the international community have provided about $6 billion in relief support to Haiti within the annual UN programs, not including support for natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, which exceeded $9 billion to cope with the 2010 earthquake. In the past ten years, the United States has provided assistance to Haiti amounting to about $5 billion, and this shows that international support has not stopped, but it has not saved the Haitian people from the cycle of doom in which they are drowning, due to the inability of the international community to find solutions capable of stopping the conflict, fighting corruption and crime, and achieving stability. Was this failure the US administration put Haiti at the top of the list of countries that will address its fragility in the next ten years?
In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which killed nearly 300,1 people and displaced about 5.5 million people, the United States has since provided more than $<> billion in aid under the title "Long-Term Recovery, Reconstruction, and Development Programs," providing the Haitian people with the following, according to the State Department report:
The State Department report states that the United States is Haiti's largest trading partner, and participates in many investment sectors such as banks, airlines, oil and agricultural companies, in addition to US-owned equipment assembly plants. Tourism, medical supplies and equipment, infrastructure modernization and clothing production are areas of investment opportunities for U.S. companies in Haiti.
If the United States believes that it has achieved so many achievements for the Haitian people as before, it makes us wonder once again what it will achieve in the next ten years in Haiti, which it and the international community have not been able to achieve over the past decades.
China's efforts in the Caribbean are part of its global strategy to forge deep economic ties and strong diplomatic ties around the world by building major infrastructure projects.
Chinese competitor
The United States found itself in direct confrontation with China in the Caribbean countries, after the many moves it made there, which add to its actions in Africa, the Middle East and Southwest Asia, and enhance China's political and economic capabilities vis-à-vis the United States.
Just as the United States intervened in Haiti during the Cold War against the Soviet Union that infiltrated those warm waters via Marxist Cuba, it is repositioning itself in Haiti in the face of Chinese infiltration into the region. In the spring of 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, China sent shipments of medical equipment to fight the coronavirus to Haiti, in what the United States saw as an attempt by China to strengthen its relations in the region through donations, as part of what is known as "mask diplomacy."
China had previously provided Jamaica, one of the Greater Antilles in the Gulf of Mexico south of Cuba, with loans and expertise to build miles of new highways, donated security equipment throughout the Caribbean to the military and police, established a network of Chinese cultural centers, and sent large shipments of test kits, masks and ventilators to help governments respond to the pandemic.
Former President Donald Trump's administration viewed this growing Chinese presence in the region with great concern as a direct challenge to Washington's influence in it, as analysts in the United States see the region as of great strategic importance as a center for logistics, banking and trade, and could have great security value due to its proximity to the United States.
China's efforts in the region are part of its global strategy to forge deep economic ties and strong diplomatic ties around the world by building major infrastructure projects under the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. The Chinese government's low-interest loans to Caribbean countries and Venezuela over the past 17 years have amounted to about $62 billion, many of which have been granted in exchange for long-term oil supplies.
In the same period, Chinese companies invested in ports, maritime logistics, mining, oil, sugar and timber industries, tourist resorts and technology projects, contributing to an 8-fold increase in China-Caribbean trade between 2002 and 2019.
The United States has stepped up its warnings to allies in the region about the dangers of doing business with Beijing, stressing that they are potential risks ranging from poor construction, unfair loans and espionage.
After the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise two years ago, Republican lawmakers Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry of the Taiwan Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning of the potential multiplier effects on stability within Haiti and across the wider region, and that it could prompt Haiti to open its doors to political interference by China. The lawmakers wrote that the Chinese Communist Party would seek to capitalize on Haiti's political turmoil to further marginalize U.S. and Taiwanese interests.
When President Joe Biden's administration received a mandate from Congress – immediately after taking office in the White House – to prepare an operational strategic plan to address fragility for 10 years, he did not give Haiti the slightest attention, and he is of the opinion that if Haiti were to sink in the Caribbean, it would not affect American interests. However, the changes that took place in the US defense strategy under President Biden on the Russian and Chinese fronts, and the escalation of the US confrontation on both fronts, recalculated again towards Haiti, especially in light of the reports received about the growing Chinese activity in the Caribbean countries in particular, to become at the top of the list of fragile countries in the US administration's strategy for the next ten years.
(To be continued: Haiti.. Strategic Processing)