How Beijing is using its billions to buy up the Commonwealth: China has invested £685BILLION in 42 nations since 2005 as critics accuse UK of being ‘asleep at the wheel’

Daily Mail

China has invested more than £685billion across 42 Commonwealth member states since 2005 as the Communist Party’s extraordinary bid for global power continues unimpeded.

Foreign policy hawks have accused Britain of being ‘completely asleep at the wheel for decades’ as China expands its influence in the Caribbean and targets ‘weak’ Commonwealth states across the planet.

By ploughing huge sums of money into poor countries such as Barbados and Jamaica, Beijing hopes to saddle them with such enormous unpayable debts that they are forced to hand over the assets used as security. In some cases, this has included ports in crucial waterways which has allowed the Communist Party to challenge rival superpowers such as the Americans and the Indians.

Figures compiled by the American Enterprise Institute show that China has invested almost £500million into roads, homes, sewers and a hotel in Barbados, the Caribbean island which is distancing itself from British influence as it becomes a republic on Tuesday.

In nearby Jamaica, Beijing has invested around £2.6billion against a gross domestic product of £16.4billion, making the country the biggest recipient of Chinese money in the Caribbean.

When China wanted UN members to back its draconian Hong Kong National Security Law, it received support from Papua New Guinea and Antigua and Barbuda – two out of the 16 remaining Commonwealth realms. The former has received £5.3billion in Chinese investment (21 per cent of its GDP), while the latter receiving £1billion (60 per cent of its GDP).

Other Commonwealth members that supported Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong have included Sierra Leone, where Chinese investment since 2005 amounts to 145 per cent of its GDP, Zambia, Lesotho, Cameroon and Mozambique.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has announced plans to replace the Commonwealth Development Corporation with a new body, British International Investment, to provide ‘up to £8billion’ of investment per year in Commonwealth countries by 2025. However, China hawks have slammed the Government’s late response to Beijing.

Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told The Telegraph: ‘They would like to undermine whatever they can internationally, so they can pick off countries and prevent anti-Chinese resolutions in the Commonwealth and elsewhere.

‘It is a very clever move and we have come late to the party by not really understanding the extent of this challenge.

‘China is commercially preying on the Commonwealth. The question is, can we respond with a better offering? Can the UK steer western investment funds into these places?’