A Chinese in the Caribbean
Notes: Perhaps I am extremely unqualified to write this article because I feel it is hard to analyze Chinese politics and society holistically in depth, let alone providing a comparative analysis of countries that I know little about. However, as a bored student under quarantine, I’ve been given much time to reflect my experience in the Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, and the Republic of Cuba regarding how that has shaped myself as a person and a scholar. Therefore, this article is more of a blog instead of any serious academic work.
COVID-19 struck London around March 2020 and the world started going crazy for me. Almost all my Chinese friends went back to China when there were few cases in Europe, but the situation was unclear in China, which made me question their rationale. As always, when I am overly confident, I get punished. Shortly afterwards, China implemented strict travel restrictions, which made tickets extremely expensive compared to normal standards. As someone who does not spend a dime more than an object’s regular value, I planned to wait for prices to return to normality.
After the semester ended, I stayed in London till mainland Europe opened its border for travelers from the U.K., so I became the first batch to have applied for my tourist visa. I traveled from Barcelona to Berlin in 2 months. By August, news from the U.S. told me that a new member of the family will arrive in September so I decided to end my trip earlier so that there will be a family member around for my cousin because nobody in China could easily get a tourist visa or travel to Boston under COVID-19.
Unfortunately, my 70 euros ticket from Lisboa to Boston went to waste as I found out there is travel a restriction between the Schengen Area and the U.S., but when I am determined to do something, I will push it through. I found out there is a loophole — I can travel to a third state and stay 14 days there so that I would not come from the U.S. but from that third state. As a mainland Chinese passport holder, my options are really limited. After browsing through the internet, I decided against going to Eastern Europe and opted to go to the Dominican Republic. I can’t remember why but that just happened.
Without knowing too much about the Dominican Republic, I booked a flight from Berlin to Santo Domingo in mid August 2020. Until then, I have never gone to a developing country outside of China. The first thing that came to my attention besides being reminded how poor my Spanish is, was that the curfew there is serious. From the airport to my Airbnb apartment, my taxi was pulled over around 5 times by armed military officials who have checkpoints set as if they are trying to catch a criminal vehicle. The driver had to show special permission that allows him to transport foreigners from the airport.
After getting some sleep, I went out the next day to do my normal traveling routine — get a local SIM card and some cash. Interestingly, my Airbnb host told me not to take out my phone or my GoPro because she believes that there is too much crime. I managed to follow her instructions. Along the way, I saw a badly managed traffic in which motorcycles drove recklessly. After reaching the shop, I naturally pulled the door but that was locked. Without asking anyone, I believe this is related to the crime rate.
With the help of Uber, moving around is easy and avoids the doubt of being scammed. Generally, I prefer traveling with public transportation so that I can experience what it is like to live as a local, but the routes and stops for public buses are extremely confusing while I feel uncomfortable getting on small buses that have open doors and frequently stop to get passengers. My first impression of the cars there is that many are in really poor conditions — you can easily spot cars with dents. As a privileged individual, I wondered why the government would allow such cars to be on the road. Perhaps the other observation answers the question automatically — many cars do not have front license plates while the rest that do have front plates are very interesting as such plates are Japanese, German, Spanish, etc. but from the Dominican Republic. It is not hard to deduce where the undesirable cars from the first world went to after seeing these plates. After all, why drive a wrecked tenth and car when you can afford a new car?
The Dominican Republic, in my opinion, has a very interesting relationship with its colonizers. Let’s start from a supposedly uncontroversial topic of religion: ‘Dios, Patria y Libertad’ (God, homeland and liberty), the three characters on the coast of arms of the Dominican Republic. In fact, the word ‘Dominican’ has a religious etymology as it traces back to Saint Dominic, the founder of the Order of the Dominicans. Coming from a communist society (in terms of its attitudes towards religion), it is surprising for me to see the importance of Christianity in the Dominican Republic, especially considering the troublesome history of the spread of Christianity from Europe to the Americas. Therefore, I was extremely surprised that the Dominican Republic, together with other Latin American states, managed to fund a $70 million building in tribute to Christopher Columbus called Faro a Colón (The Columbus Lighthouse). Additionally, the old town center (Zona Colonial) preserves the first settlements of the Europeans, including the house of Diego Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus.
Failing to enter any of these buildings due to COVID-19 restrictions, I presume that locals are living under a sanitized history as the engraved characters outside of Faro a Colón are full of praises for Columbus — for example: Abrete mas y mas con humildad y amor (open more and more with humility and love). Needless to say, many native Americans might disagree with the amount of humility and love they have received from Columbus and his followers. However, I am neither a revisionist nor an imperialist who is interested in meddling with the internal affairs of other states through the promotion of an alternative reading of history. Instead, what I am interested in is the perception of history for individuals across different spaces. In the United States, many progressive individuals are promoting against the celebration of Christopher Columbus Day for reasons that we can all recite. However, such an argument seems to be figuratively and literally distant for the Dominican Republic as the Caribbean Seas seems to have cut off the flow of information from the U.S. to the most visited island in the Caribbeans. Additionally, considering the intimate trading relationships between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic as well as the lack of extensive censorship, it is intriguing to see the emphasis on a particular version of history that is acceptable for the locals.
I presume the answer can be found in the front plates as well — it is difficult for one to care about daily political life when one is preoccupied with basic needs such as the satiation of one’s hunger. Many have argued that the poor are the ones who most need to participate in politics, however, borrowing the argument for political meritocracy, how do we expect a healthy society to function when the power of policymaking is kept within the hands of those who are mostly troubled by immediate short term interests? Then, what a state should do is to create a more redistributive system so that those less fortunate ones can be educated and can enjoy the luxury of thinking about politics rationally. However, the argument for political meritocracy alone is troublesome as well as China has suffered extensively from elite policymaking that ignores the realistic conditions of the people. For example, policymakers in attempting to fulfill the goal of promoting Mandarin in Inner Mongolia did not consult with native Mongolian minorities sufficiently and issued a policy with much backlash and unusual unrest. Then, what the local leaders need to learn is to incorporate a level of public consultation into the policymaking process so that the policy issued that most affects the daily lives of citizens can resonate with the interest of the people and be supported more. Importantly, what this suggestion implies is merely following the slogan of constructing socialist democracy at grassroots level.
For people on the island, they are less fortunate. They neither invented Christianity nor invited Columbus but they follow so faithfully to the doctrines of their colonizers. If we talk about decolonization, we need to impose this newly invented theory by Western schools to the Caribbean states so that they can understand Columbus is not as nice a guy as they have been taught for generations. However, is this approach itself not similar to those preachers crossing the Atlantic Ocean to spread around the word of the God? Are we not trying to change the people of the Dominican Republic into us? The world is truly an amazing place as we are left in this conundrum — we know what Columbus did but locals have a positive impression of him so we either 1) ‘help them understand’, which in itself is an imperialist cultural influence, or 2) leave them be and let them figure out their positions and interpretations of their history. Fortunately, this is not the battle for a Chinese. Unfortunately, the question regarding the necessity of paternalism is applicable in all societies. I aim at following the Doctrine of the Mean, which makes it easier for me as all I need to know is where the extremes are.
After a week at Santo Domingo, as nothing was open, I traveled to Punta Cana, a resort town in the east. The bus ride had nice views and the town is truly pretty as I had yet to see such pretty beaches anywhere else in the world. I will leave the critique of constructing an economy based on tourism for later. Just one note that many resorts and hotels are closed for business and their employees unemployed. After enjoying the paradise for a week, I flew to Boston and saw my nephew’s entry into this interesting world. I studied online for 6 months in Boston because I misinterpreted the Chinese travel restriction on people with antibodies and couldn’t reach the embassy at all. I chose to leave the U.S. because I didn’t want to extend my tourist visa’s duration of stay. Meanwhile, I knew that I didn’t want to go back to London because of the weather and the prices of things there. As I really wanted to practice my Spanish, I thought about going to a Spanish-speaking country and I thought about returning to the U.S. afterwards, which made Mexico out of the list (U.S. regulations). Again, as a Chinese passport holder, my choices are limited so I chose Cuba, (partly because of my fascination about communism). Since the flights from Boston to Cuba had crazy schedules, I randomly chose The Bahamas as a third country because conveniently, there is a flight between Nassau and Havana in 2 weeks. So I flew from Boston to Nassau. The transit flight from Charlotte to Nassau had only about 10 people on board.
I know little about The Bahamas other than the stereotypical impression that it is a rich island state where people are happy. I stayed 14 days in Nassau because traveling to other islands is either inconvenient or too expensive. Besides my normal experience of feeling stupid for being tricked by online pictures into booking a seemingly nice Airbnb room, I find the cost of living to be competitive comparing to any other global cities I have been to such as London, New York, and Paris. Perhaps Friedrich Hayek would find The Bahamas to be his paradise — there is no income tax. However, there is a high VAT for import, which makes basic goods extremely expensive even compared to those global cities as The Bahamas produce little itself. Perhaps the Bahamians are simply following what Adam Smith suggested and thought they’d utilize their natural environment — and they did as they have seemingly dedicated themselves to become the servant of the world with the tourist industry. Like everything is a double-edged sword, focusing on the tourist industry proved unwise during the COVID-19 crisis and the state offered little support to the Bahamians compared to the assistance from the U.S. government to American citizens. Considering the cost of living, I wouldn’t want to be a Bahamian during COVID-19.
After getting a SIM card, I walked to the Atlantis Island, a privately owned island connected by a brigade with Nassau. I have never liked the idea of a privately owned beach or a gated community. When I finally got into the island, I tried to follow Google Maps but was stopped by security personnels that I cannot walk through the island unless I was staying in the hotel. After finally finishing the detour, I was then informed that the beach is private and I could only enjoy the public beach behind me. As the sunshine was intense and the walk tiring, I soon began thinking about Marx: What would he say about the Atlantis Island? After visiting nearly all available beaches in Nassau, I am subjectively certain that Atlantis Island has the best beach in Nassau. Then, what this implies is that the rich have managed to encircle themselves around the best views whilst leaving the poor on the other side. Wealth inequality is no joke in Nassau — I walked in enough neighborhoods to realize the lack of infrastructure and hygiene in poor areas and the luxury of rich areas. Do the wealthy ones have the right to their land? Certainly. Is their capital justly earned and their actions of encirclement justifiable? I might disagree. After superficially reading about Marx for two semesters, I think his economic theories are largely flawed but his appeal to the proletarian succeeds at the emotional level. Erich Fromm says that we crave for equality and what normal workers after a long day of work wants is not necessarily to take over the property of the wealthy but to have the dignity of walking around posh areas without being laughed at by their lack of purchasing power. I can understand rich people’s rationale in keeping a more pretty beach by reducing the amount of people, but if they are not paying a fair price directly to the people for disallowing them the access, I fear the capitalist system does not justify offering money to the government for protection. After all, the Bahamian government does not seem to be socialist when it comes to the redistribution of resources.
Transportation in Nassau is problematic. There is no public bus while the already expensive taxis have overcharged me. Luckily, the private sector comes to the rescue as privately owned small buses called jitney are available on the streets of Nassau. They only charge around $ 1.5 per ride and operate till sunset. However, as they are private businesses, they are not well regulated by the government — I pleaded to a bus driver who was supposed to work at that time to take me back to the city center so that I wouldn’t be stranded. The driver, Mr L, believed that he was already off duty, purchased a beer and a conch salad, asked me where I wanted to go and agreed after finishing his food. Later, he told me he agreed because his house is close to my bus stop. I spent a whole day with Mr L talking with him on his bus before I left. He is a joyful presence and a helpful guy (not for free) who does not adhere strictly with jitney rules, but he is his own boss so who can complain? We talked about freedom — a priceless and indispensable value; corruption — an unavoidable part of human nature; progressive income tax — something the government should consider to reduce inequality; tourism — good for him and many Bahamians but the country should diversify its portfolio; how he managed to own his bus and his daily income. Mr L told me that The Bahamas, though a member of the Commonwealth, is heavily influenced by the U.S. as he has grown up watching baseball and went to Florida countless times as a schoolboy for school trips and as an adult working in villas. He told me that taxi drivers can get away with scamming tourists because their union is politically powerful, which makes me wonder about the nature of lobbying. Perhaps the main difference between China and Western states when it comes to corruption is that corruption is legalized and institutionalized as a fundamental part of Western politics while seemingly outlawed in China. But how are individuals supposed to influence high level politics if not through lobbying? And does lobbying not necessarily require tit-for-tat and quid-pro-quo? Perhaps Mr L is right in that we cannot avoid corruption in our societies.
A final story just to show how ridiculous I am as a person. As I am traveling in the midst of a pandemic, I needed to take COVID-19 tests to gain travel permissions. For Cuba, my next stop, I needed a PCR test, which I have confused with an antigen test. There is a restaurant in Nassau that provides free testing for customers dining inside. Knowing their policy, I decided to dine on the terrace and get the test for free. The manager disagreed and required me to pay for the test or dine inside to get it for free. His rationale being that if the restaurant allows an exception to be made in my case, what if everyone comes in for a free test? My rationale being that I have spent about $100 at the restaurant and should be categorized differently from those who simply want a free test. He asked why I persist and I told him this is a matter of principle: it is a bit challenging to convince me of doing things that I find unreasonable. But the manager’s confusion of my self-entitlement really troubles me: Why is it that I need to be felt different and treated preferentially? I did not provide an answer at the time and went on bothering other staff based on the loophole of dining in as I tried to convince them to order the most expensive thing for me and informed them I would only take one bite and leave. They refused. When both sides have a relatively high tolerance level for the amount of money they deem as insignificant, the conflict of interest is hard to resolve. In the end, the manager gave me the test result (I was tested prior to dinning and was allowed to eat while waiting for my result).
After leaving the restaurant, I had much time to reflect as I failed to catch the last bus so I took a long walk back to my Airbnb. Rules are established in a society to be respected and followed, so that we can have order and expect certain outcomes given certain actions. We want certainty in our lives so that if we play by the rule we can all live happily ever after. Unfortunately, there is a minority group of people who find following certain rules to be comparable with taking a part of their soul, so they’d resist. Certainly they can rewrite history once they are in power and rehabilitate their fallen comrades and themselves after the revolution, but they will always be sentenced as guilty before their success. This brings back to the age-long principal-agent problem. A politician always wants his/her bureaucrats to follow his/her orders, but what if such orders are not necessarily good (presuming there is good in the society)? Should bureaucrats revolt? Should normal people resist? Resistance has always been praised throughout history but when the former victims take charge, they’d always oppress. I pity the fools who have been self-intoxicating themselves by great propaganda work and thought of their resistance as heroic. I pity more the fools who judge the former fools as troublemakers who want nothing but instability and the subversion of the regime.
After being severely sunburnt and a complicated boarding process (at this stage, if I can successfully obtain a boarding pass within 30 minutes, I’d consider that a success), I managed to get on a flight to Havana, Cuba. Again, I know little about Cuba except for the stereotype that it is a communist regime, has great relations with China, is sanctioned by the U.S., not a liberal democracy, etc. The Cuban customs is truly interesting: I was questioned for about 2–3 hours about my motivations of visiting Cuba before letting me in. The very first question (in English, then we had to talk in Spanish because my Spanish is better than the agents’ English) a seemingly mid-level official asked me was: “Why are you in my country?” If only I had recorded that. The Cuban visa is interesting as one cannot apply for a tourist visa and most Chinese people tend to suggest their motivation for traveling is to support the Cuban people. However, the agents led me to say that I am in Cuba for tourism as they believed supporting the Cuban people to be a lame response and issued me with a tourist visa instead. In a way, they are breaking their own laws. I responded to everything in honesty: I know little about Cuba, I don’t even know why I am in Cuba, I don’t know what I will do in Cuba, I don’t know where I will go in Cuba, etc. Perhaps the most damning of all responses is that I informed them I am a Politics student and interested in learning the Cuban regime. You can imagine how surprised they are when hearing this. After asking the same questions twice, they realized I am just some stupid tourist instead of an agent trying to infiltrate and compromise the great Cuban revolution and let me in.
I was taken to a hotel for quarantine — the only country that requires mandatory government-organized quarantine besides China for my year-long trip. Along the way, I found many old cars and well-built roads — in fact, the roads are much better than the supposedly much richer capitalist society of The Bahamas and the Dominican Republic. You’d also expect more cars for such wide roads but there is no traffic congestion on the road. In contrast with the Dominican Republic, there are no cars with dents on the road, but Cuba has many vintage cars, which I originally thought were produced by themselves. Later, I realized that cars are ridiculously expensive in Cuba as the government restricts the direct purchase of cars from abroad and produces little itself so there is a significant supply shortage. In essence, Cuban people have to drive vintage cars, not necessarily because of their love for the good old times. I even heard stories from a taxi driver that he purchased parts of an old car from Russia, where he does not need a visa, and resembled them back in Cuba to avoid problems. Also, such trades are run by a black market, just like the foreign currency and basic commodities.
I was shipped into a three-star hotel near the Revolution Square (Plaza de la Revolución) and (un)surprisingly, they did not have wifi, which proved problematic for my online studies. Besides that, I found it interesting that the hotel has many Chinese programs and the livestream of beIn Sports, which allowed me to watch barça games. I doubt the Cuban network purchased the right for rebroadcasting beIn but that seemed to be the case, and that the Cuban government really did a crappy job in censorship as viewers can look at ads and be influenced by American capitalist system. For the Chinese program, they are successful as many have told me that they think China is doing extremely well in almost all spheres and really admire China. On this topic, many Cubans that I have spoken with, are willing to accept, or even prefer the Chinese model compared with the American model of governance as they are willing to sacrifice freedom, which they don’t currently have, for economic development, which they still don’t have. Perhaps the modernization theory holds true, but we need a well-developed economy for it to be testified.
After quarantine, I stayed at an Airbnb in Mr M’s house. Mr M is a retired mid-level government worker running Airbnb with his uncle and sometimes his daughter. He detests the existing system and wants radical changes. He believes communism is authoritarianism, which would’ve really saddened Marx. When I tried to communicate with him about Marx’s critique of liberalism based on false freedom, he told me that freedom is the capacity of having a car and drive through years of handwork, which his friend in Tampa has enjoyed but he, after working for decades for the government, cannot enjoy. Mr M thought of me as a communist and told me that real freedom is the freedom to travel, to go abroad and spend money, essentially the things that I am doing. Then, Mr M equates freedom with purchasing power, which is exactly what a capitalist wants his workers to think and what Marx was afraid of — the alienation of capitalism. Luckily, I found support after talking with taxi drivers who believe that if Cuba were to implement a capitalist system with liberal democracy, it wouldn’t necessarily be better off. Perhaps supporters of this argument should really conduct a comparative analysis between the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
It is through conversations with Mr M that I came to realize that Cuba is not a socialist or communist society — it is state capitalism, which Mr M does not understand and insists socialism is in Cuba and it is evil. Many have argued that China is practicing state capitalism as the state organizes economy, supports state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and creates trade barriers for foreign direct investments (FDIs), while exploiting the working class. However, such supporters have largely ignored the declining importance of the state in recent years and the signing of trade agreements with the West that increasingly incorporates China into the global economy. In contrast, Cuba employs around 80% of its population as government workers, runs a monopoly in almost all industries ranging from rum and tobacco to cars and telecommunications, and pays little to its workers while the ruling class can live in luxuries. Perhaps I have rescued Marx one more time — socialism is not evil, shrouding the socialist coat for the right of bad authoritarianism is evil. Then, the job becomes the definition and evaluation of good authoritarianism.
I have bugged Mr M to ask him to take me shopping as he has told me that he needs to get up at 5 AM to get in line for supermarkets. Sanctions from the U.S. and inefficient domestic agriculture for Cuba means that it has to import basic commodities like pasta and rice from abroad with a premium. Also, I was surprised to learn that the Cuban economy depends largely on the tourist industry as little heavy industry is available — I saw a woman being rejected of entering a store to buy concrete because she did not apply for a permit for getting concrete, such red tape explains nothing but insufficient supply. Then, in an economy with massive trade deficits, little self-sufficiency capacities, and sanctions by the U.S. so little borrowing power, the purchase of goods by the SOEs from states like Spain and Mexico cannot suffice the demand of the population.
Before I left, I went shopping with Mr M’s neighbor who runs a little private cafeteria. I have walked past the shop many times and it is almost always crowded. I joined the line at 1 PM but Mr M told me that his neighbors started waiting at around 6 AM. The scene was chaotic — a shop worker collects IDs and bank cards when it is the turn of a group of people, issues them upon entry, but those who feel left out would create a scene, a stage where officials from the interior ministry would involve, and if unresolved, FAR (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias — Revolutionary Armed Forces) would involve and tends to solve the unrest. The supermarket only accepts USD or Euros, which is a slap in the face for the Cuban government just to showcase its inefficiency in managing the economy. I heard from Mr M that there are two types of stores: one accepts Cuban pesos, but has little products, and the other only accepts foreign currencies but has longer lines and more products. I went to the latter and found out that the supermarket that I waited for 1.5–2 hours to enter is nothing different, if not inferior, compared to a normal supermarket in any city that I have been to. The goods there, except for some brands of juice and beer, are all produced in Europe, mainly Spain and Italy. If a country spends money to get foreign detergent or rice instead of creating its own, that country is in serious trouble. Importantly, we are not talking about The Bahamas that strategically presents itself as a tourist destination or a club of wealthy foreigners, we are talking about the revolutionary Cuba that precisely overthrew such a tourist destination state under the Batista regime. Perhaps Marx is right in his theory of history — a state cannot leap to communism without experiencing capitalist economic development.
On other fronts, the cellular service is absolutely expensive in many standards — 30 USD for 4 GB, more expensive than my package in London and Boston, and far more expensive than China. To put things into perspective, many workers can only earn about 100–200 USD per month in Cuba. I had the luck of witnessing the resignation of Raúl Castro as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba on 19 April, 2021, watching it live with Mr M. He hates the now №1 Miguel Díaz-Canel for stressing the importance of continuity and I told him about Deng Xiaoping’s stories. I believe the Cuban economy will gradually open up and implement a level of market reform, which is welcomed by the most anti-U.S. Cuban I have talked with — they want a capitalist economic system but the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba. Mr M also told me that many people buy things from Panama and fly back to Cuba to sell them. The customs knows about this but does nothing. Many people also get in line for supermarkets and resell things with a higher price in the black market. The government cannot regulate this successfully. The government issues its workers with Cuban pesos but expects them to somehow get USD to purchase goods, thereby creating a scenario in which 1 USD is officially 25 CUP but in the black market can go up twice the official rates. One thing the government can regulate is asking people to wear masks. I was perhaps the only one who sometimes did not wear a mask.
Well, that’s the end of the story for now. Better get to my final revisions.
