KINGSTON, Jamaica— John McIntyre, charge d’affaires at the United States (US) Embassy in Kingston, has indicated that he is following the lead of the White House as it relates to discouraging or encouraging Jamaica’s relationship with China.

McIntyre was addressing journalists during a roundtable discussion organised by the Embassy, which was held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in St Andrew a day after US President, Joe Biden, and Chinese President, Xi Jinping, eased longstanding tensions between the two world powers during a virtual summit on Monday in Washington. They however failed to come to a consensus on key issues such as trade, technology, human rights and China’s relationship with Taiwan. 

Xi Jinping even warned Biden, that encouraging Taiwanese independence would be equivalent to “playing with fire”.

Former US President, Donald Trump, maintained an aggressive stance towards China throughout his time in office and relations were also sour with US administrations prior to Trump’s.

“We have a new administration now, but I think President Biden is very clear about where the US government is on this. Recently there was a virtual summit with the leader of China. We remain concerned about any country with investment in this region and Jamaica in particular where ethical and environmental norms are violated.

“We are going to watch that no matter where we are and we are going to hold ourselves to the same high standards. In that case, I think we are particularly concerned about telecommunications, cyber security and infrastructure especially as Jamaica moves forward. We are going to continue to follow the White House’s lead which has been very clear to date and we are going to continue to engage with Jamaica and regionally,” McIntyre said.

Joe James, commercial and economic officer at the US Embassy, added that the main focus is to ensure that Jamaica is open for investment and that it comes in a fair and transparent manner.

“That is something we try to stress through developing a number of initiatives here,” he said.

He continued: “Telecommunications is priority area and continues to be. Most recently during a ministerial visit of four Jamaican Ministers to Washington, we signed a declaration on 5G cooperation. It is based on developing 5G networks based on open market competition and the rule of law. That is something we continue to follow and we are looking at ways that we can provide technical assistance and share our experience with the roll out of 5G with Jamaica and the emphasis is that we are looking at open, transparent and reliable partners for Jamaica.”

 Jason Cross