There is a kind deafening silence in debate and discourse on politics in Jamaica. Politics is not just about the talk on crime and corruption, but also matters in foreign affairs and ideas regarding leading change. There is much abuse of the word transformation in Jamaica; it is used repeatedly to give the impression that that process is in train — more hype than substance.

There is the need to resurrect discourses on resistance and change. The resistance and struggle continue even though we have achieved Independence because we are very far from being free. Over the years I have written about leaders and leading change, and on the need to have leaders that are responsible and competent. The history of Jamaica, 1944 to 1954, was a glaring example of leadership which lacked competence in negotiations and the giving away of our most precious resources — bauxite — to the Americans and the Canadians.

This article was inspired by two main factors:

1. A recent research, ‘Rastafari Exodus in the Age of Imperialism’, which permitted my exploration into the history of imperialism, it distinctive features, and this ultra-modern Chinese expansion abroad in the age of what I call “supranationalism”.

2. The second stimulus was the watching a video on “the recolonisation of Zambia and the imperialist role of China”. This information and data on the latter came from a video that was sent to me from a friend in New York.

Let me be very clear, we must make a distinction between the Chinese immigrants and the Chinese state and its neo-imperialistic tendencies. At the same time, we must understand there is no free food from any nation seeking world domination.

What is interesting is that just a few generations ago Chinese immigrants came to Jamaica under the indentured workers schemes. Today they are investors, business people, and engineers among other highly skilled workers constructing major projects in this country.

I observed the business qualities of the local corner stores of the Chinese. Their reinvigoration of wholesale and retail businesses in areas where previous establishments of the same business type failed. It is instructive understanding how they learn the people’s language and also the observation of the services and successes of the Chinese restaurants.

I write this with all sincerity; some of these business people are my friends, and I want to be crystal clear, the issue of Chinese within the context of world imperialism is a question that we must explore. This must be done without having people blaming or engaging in with quarrels the Chinese immigrants who obey the law and pay taxes for what is happening at the international level. I know the feeling, historically and presently, about the anti-immigrant scare in Jamaica.

The title of the video is Zambia’s Faustian fortune. The commentator advances the idea that Zambia has become China’s first colony on Africa. This position was illustrated by the articulation of the commentator’s voice on the fact that the country defaulted on loans that led to the Chinese taking over of the national electric company and the national broadcasting company. According to the commentator, the aim of the Chinese is to take over the commanding heights of that country as part of their strategic thrust in Zambia and Africa. This is really like the second coming of colonialism in Zambia.

The television talk show host revealed that China is smart in its execution of its will. The Chinese Government seemingly selects as priorities countries with corrupt and greedy politicians. These leaders make poor negotiators — giving away for generations the national wealth of the country to foreigners. Many of these politicians are only concerned about their pockets, to achieve short-term satisfaction and their main objective in winning elections.

There must be a resurgence of the will to struggle; even the face of defeat there should be no surrender. We have been down this road before, against this background this is no basis to submit to persistent subjugation and oppression. We must begin to put an end to poor government negotiations on behalf of this country. Consistently, we have been on the losing end. Will the ascendency of China in global politics make the struggles for change easier for us?

After an extensive exploration into the emergence of imperialism for the turn of the century by Dr T E S Scholes (a Jamaican scholar) and J A Hobson’s Imperialism exploring the emergence of imperialism in South Africa associated with the Anglo-Boer war, and also the seizure of the people’s lands and mineral resources by the Europeans.

This process was led by adventures, industrialists, gunmakers because millions have been killed by the Gatling and other types of machine guns used to subdue, conquer and control the mass of black people and also to plunder land and resources. The 1912 work of Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, looks at the rise of the multinational and transnational banking and industrial combines as the major feature of this form of domination and control. The work of Harry Madgoff (19602) on the rise of American imperialism looks at the rise of American imperialism after the Second World War; the role of the American insurgency in the Cold War; America’s banking, communication and media system accompanied by the proliferation of American banks where American capital was deposited. A most interest story on Imperialism: A Structural Theory by Johan Galtung (1970s) sums up the common features of imperialism. The most salient are the cultural/religious themes, media/communication, the role of the transnational corporation, as well as American foreign policy and its military. How well do the features of Chinese global expansion fit into the characteristics of imperialism as we know it?

After careful observation of the expansion of the Chinese in the Americas, in the Caribbean, in Latin America, and in the United States, I began to think about how to make sense of the Chinese global expansion. Unlike the past leaders of imperialism, China has a socialist government with an economy and foreign investment culture led by the State. Like past features of imperialism immigration is a common feature with the Chinese global impact, but its banking institutions are not yet global. Nonetheless, its cash-rich economy encourages indebtedness in both the developing and the developed world, especially in African and the United States respectively. The cultural/communications and military features of imperialism are not present in the thrust of the Chinese into the global system. It’s rehashing to this Silk Road communication and investment policy and its economic power in Africa and Latin American and the Caribbean directly pose what is perceived as threat to American world domination.

I recall during World War II there was a position that after Hitler it was “our turn” — a theme uttered from the emerging Rastafarian leader Leonard P Howell as part of a collective voice of the pan-Africanist position by C L R James, George Padmore, and others when asked by the Soviet Union to form a common front with England to defeat Hitler and Germany. There was the prophecy by Howell that Babylon would fall, and it did. Present-day Babylon is consistent with the biblical prophecies from the books of Daniel and Revelation on the rise and fall of great nations.

America has lost its edge and struggles now will be the West against ‘the rest’. There will the rise of China as the dominant economic power in the world accompanied by the rise of other Asiatic developed states. In fact, it is the first time in the modern world that a non-Western nation will dominate the global economy. This has posed a very serious problem for the Americans who are sitting on the crest of their twilight wave; hence, the campaign to “Make America Great Again!”

After China, will it be our turn?

thearchives01@yahoo.com