Communist China is rapidly expanding its takeover of a Caribbean island close to American territory.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is increasing its footprint in the Caribbean as it seeks to replace the United States as the world’s leading superpower.
China has started to take over the paradise island of Antigua, just a couple hundred miles away from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Newsweek reported.
The communist state is constructing a Chinese-run special economic zone on the island.
The China-controlled island “will have its own customs and immigration formalities, a shipping port and a dedicated airline and will be able to issue passports,” according to the report.
“It will establish businesses offering everything from logistics to cryptocurrencies, facial surgery to ‘virology.’”
China’s encroachment on what is known as “America’s third border” has U.S. officials alarmed, however.
The CCP is using these developments and upgrades to a country’s infrastructure as a way to bring China’s military into a new region.
A spokesperson for the Florida-based Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) told Newsweek:
“We are aware that China may use its commercial and diplomatic presence for military purposes.
“In Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, China has already abused commercial agreements at host-country ports for military aims; our concern is they may do the same in this region.”
The report said that Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne is a huge supporter of CCP leader Xi Jinping.
The communist nation has become Antigua’s favorite country to borrow money from.
Antigua government officials refused to tell the publication how much the country owed China.
PM Browne said that even the insinuation that China could be doing anything nefarious was “utter rubbish.”
The statement from SOUTHCOM adds:
“Given the breadth of investment into logistics infrastructure China has made in the Caribbean, we are concerned 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.
“Those concerns are further heightened when you consider the Chinese Communist Party’s practice of targeting, recruiting, and bribing officials.”
Gisele Isaac, chairwoman of the United Progressive Party in Antigua, warned that Browne had sold out the country to the Chinese.
“Antigua has traded its sovereignty, I think most of us believe, to China,” she said.
“I think China wants a foothold in more strategic places, as a superpower.
“I think that this administration has become, and that’s our concern, overly reliant on one partner, that partner being China.”
“Everybody feels like their testicles are in a vise; that if you say the wrong thing if you align yourself the wrong way, you’re putting yourself in danger,” Isaac said.
“At night, I switch on my alarm and say my prayers.”
The report notes that China’s new embassy on the island is such an intimidating compound that locals often stop and take photos of it.
Antigua sold China the five acres of land for its embassy for the equivalent of 40 U.S. cents.
Multiple regional officials said that they believe the “embassy” was really “an intelligence base or a listening post,” the report said.
“We assess that any intelligence activities conducted by the People’s Republic of China in the Caribbean will almost certainly be targeted at U.S. and regional commercial and military movements in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean,” SOUTHCOM added.
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