A hospital loan by China to The Bahamas has sparked a feud between Beijing and Washington that has also drawn in the United Kingdom and seen a mention of Guyana.
The Tribune in The Bahamas yesterday reported that the Chinese embassy has challenged the United States to say whether it ever offered Nassau a competing loan for a new hospital. The Chinese challenge came after the US criticised the Philip Davis administration’s US$195m agreement with Beijing.
“Is there a US loan proposal at all on the table?” the embassy asked in a statement released on Monday, describing American concerns as “baseless and absurd”.
The Tribune said that the Chinese response came days after US chargé d’affaires Kimberly Furnish said Chinese investments in the Caribbean “typically benefit elites, not the people”.
Beijing dismissed the remarks and said its deal with The Bahamas came without political strings and at terms the US and others have yet to match.
“Can other countries provide loans to The Bahamas with terms as favourable as China’s?” the embassy asked, defending the hospital project as a response to the country’s healthcare needs, not geopolitical influence, The Tribune reported.
The report said that the diplomatic row follows the revelation that the government bypassed a British financing proposal earlier this year. The British High Commission told The Tribune the UK Export Finance had offered terms competitive with China’s, with the added advantage of compatibility with Western medical equipment and training systems.
According to The Tribune, UK officials said their proposal was well received, and that after delays in China’s offer, Prime Minister Philip Davis asked them to direct their pitch to the Minister of Health. But despite follow-ups, the Davis administration ultimately declined to pursue the UK funding route.
Director of Communications in the Office of the Prime Minister Latrae Ramming said on Monday that the project was already too advanced by the time UK firms formally engaged, and reiterated the government’s position that China’s terms were “very favourable”.
Ramming also responded to US criticism.
“We do not intend to get between the geopolitical fight of China and the United States,” he said, according to The Tribune. “The Prime Minister has been very clear that China has always been a partner in The Bahamas’ long-term economic development.”
The loan from the China Export-Import Bank will fund most of the US$267m hospital, reduced from an initial US$290m after a Chinese engineering review. It includes a 20-year repayment term at two percent interest with a five-year grace period. Officials say reinforced concrete will replace fire-resistant steel to reduce costs, The Tribune reported.
The facility — to be built on 50 acres in the Perpall Tract — will feature 200 beds, paediatric and maternal wards, intensive care units, emergency services, surgical theatres, diagnostic labs, and mass casualty infrastructure. Services currently housed at Princess Margaret Hospital will be shifted, allowing PMH to expand adult care, the report said.
Addressing claims that the deal represented a “debt trap”, the Chinese Embassy said its loans account for only a small fraction of The Bahamas’ external debt and do not come with political conditions.
“The very Western countries that repeat the so-called ‘Chinese debt trap’ narrative are, in fact, the ones whose dominance of multilateral financial institutions and commercial lenders are the major creditors and sources of debt stress,” it said.
“China is a trustworthy friend and reliable partner of The Bahamas,” the embassy added, citing hospital projects in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana as examples of cooperation that “involves no geopolitical calculations, seeks no spheres of influence, and imposes no political conditions”, The Tribune reported.
It called on the US to abandon “its outdated Cold War mentality and zero-sum game approach” and take “an open and inclusive attitude” toward China’s cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean nations.
