“The motivation for Jamaica moving away from the British monarchy may have something to do with the fact that Jamaica, like many Third World nations, has recently been cosying up to Beijing.”
“In 2019, Jamaica joined China’s Belt and Road initiative, which establishes trade routes between China and almost 70 other nations, with China fronting bills to improve nations’ infrastructure with the goal of increasing the communist regime’s soft power across the world.”
“Belt and Road is somewhat of a poisoned chalice, however, as developing nations like Jamaica are left in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of debt to Beijing in what some have branded “debt-trap diplomacy”.”
“Likewise, China has built essential services in Jamaica, including a children’s hospital in Montego Bay, which are presented as gifts, but in reality such “gifts” come with strings attached, some invisible — such as an expectation that beneficiaries support Chinese foreign policy in international organisations like the United Nations.”
“This was seen in 2020 when 54 nations backed China’s likely illegal Hong Kong crackdown, many of them — including Caribbean nations such as Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, and Cuba — being part of Belt and Road.”