JAMAICA | The Dragon's Grip: Jamaica's Silent Surrender to Chinese Interests

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, April 14, 2025 - The shadow of a new colonization falls across Jamaica's shores. This time, our would-be masters come not in red coats with muskets, but in business suits bearing infrastructure contracts and promises of prosperity.

What we are witnessing is nothing short of a strategic economic invasion by Chinese state interests—executed with such clinical precision that many Jamaicans remain blind to the shackles being forged around our economy, our sovereignty, and our future.

As a nation of over 95% Black people, Jamaica continues to struggle against an economic hierarchy that keeps the majority population pinned to the bottom of the wealth pyramid. The control of land, industry, and capital remains concentrated in the hands of a narrow minority, a system of economic apartheid that persists decades after our supposed independence. 

Now, a new threat deepens this crisis: the methodical takeover of Jamaica by Chinese business interests, with Montego Bay serving as their strategic beachhead.

The numbers tell a devastating story. In 2024 alone, over 1,300 young Black Jamaican men—men of working and reproductive age—were lost to violence. Simultaneously, more than 20,000 skilled, educated Jamaicans fled their homeland in search of economic dignity elsewhere. 

While our population stagnates through this hemorrhaging of talent and vitality, the Asian population—particularly the Chinese community—grows steadily, strategically, silently. This demographic shift carries profound implications not merely for our economy but for our very cultural survival.

Make no mistake: we are no longer dealing with the familiar Chinese shopkeepers selling rice and flour in our towns. Today's threat comes from a sophisticated, state-backed corporate network led by the Association of Chinese Enterprises in Jamaica (ACEJ)—a modern economic juggernaut reminiscent of the colonial Dutch East India Company. 

Their tentacles extend far beyond retail into construction, mining, telecommunications, agriculture, healthcare, and increasingly, banking and finance.

Consider the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), a flagship arm of the Chinese state, awarded the US$274.5-million Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project—funded not by Chinese generosity but by Jamaican taxpayers. 

This massive contract includes rehabilitating Barnett Street, constructing the Long Hill Bypass, and conducting drainage studies of Montego Bay. Why was this lucrative project not awarded to Jamaican firms, engineers, and consultants who have demonstrated their capabilities on projects like the Northern Coastal Highway? This isn't merely poor governance—it is economic sabotage against our own people.

The placement of political figures in western Jamaica reveals the machinery enabling this Chinese entrenchment. Minister Homer Davis, former mayor of Montego Bay and now head of the Office of the Prime Minister (West), alongside Dr. Horace Chang's continued grip on the powerful Ministry of National Security, form the political bulwark protecting Chinese interests. 

From expedited building approvals and work permits to preferential clearance of imported goods, a coordinated effort ensures the Chinese community remains politically protected and economically dominant. This arrangement serves multiple masters: Chinese capital, expanding enclaves, and well-funded campaign war chests for the next election cycle.

The recent grand celebration of Chinese New Year at Pinnacle Reading stands as a testament to their growing cultural footprint—fully embraced by Jamaica's political establishment and civil society. 

This public display of influence triggered such alarm in Washington that the Trump administration dispatched Secretary of State Rubio to Jamaica in a belated attempt to counter Chinese influence in America's backyard. But Jamaica must remember: we are not in the business of "swapping dog fi monkey." We need a decisive stand against all forms of neo-colonialism, regardless of their origin.

Look to the Montego Bay waterfront, where cranes rise against the Caribbean sky. What appears as development is, in reality, displacement. The regeneration of downtown Montego Bay, construction of luxury high-rises in areas like Reading, and the destruction of precious wetlands and mangroves form part of a calculated strategy. 

When the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation speaks of "opening new areas for housing and expansion," we must ask: for whom? Will local developers—Gore, Surrey Paving, Black Brothers, Moe, Azan, WICHON—have a seat at this table? Or will they be relegated to spectators as Chinese interests with deep pockets and deeper political connections reshape our landscape?

We need only recall CHEC's disastrous roadwork in Kingston—flooding along Hagley Park Road, chaos at Portia Simpson Square, the collapse of Marcus Garvey Drive—all eventually remedied by Jamaican contractors. Yet here we stand again, handing them another multi-million-dollar project not based on performance but political expediency.

This stance is not xenophobia—it is patriotism. This is not opposition to development—it is a defense of sovereignty. Jamaica must not be sold piecemeal to foreign powers whose allegiance lies solely with their state and profit margins. 

We demand transparency. We demand accountability. Above all, we demand majority rule—economic control by the people who live here, who love here, who built this land with blood and sweat.

The government must enact legislation to limit land ownership by foreigners and to revisit the partnership arrangements between foreign investments and local businesses. These revised frameworks must encourage the genuine transfer of technology, build capacity among local entrepreneurs, and expand the ownership base to include more Jamaicans. 

Without such protective measures, we risk creating a twenty-first century plantation economy where Jamaicans become mere laborers on land their ancestors once claimed through independence.

The time has come for the Jamaican people to awaken from this dangerous slumber of complacency. We call on the Government of Jamaica to halt the unchecked expansion of Chinese corporate influence. 

We call on our citizens to resist this new plantation economy—disguised though it may be as investment. And we call on our institutions, civil society, media, and diaspora to stand united in declaration: Never again. Because if we fail to act now, there may soon be no Jamaica left to fight for.

O. Dave Allen is a political commentator and community activist. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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