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As Bahamas Turn To Recovery, U.S. Worries About China Stepping In To Help

Somerville

Somerville

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The people of the Bahamas are going to need a lot of help to recover from the devastation of hurricane Dorian. If China offers financial and logistical aid with the possibility of establishing stronger ties between the Bahamas and China, how will the US respond?

As Bahamas Turn To Recovery, U.S. Worries About China Stepping In To Help

President Trump has promised to help the Bahamas recover from Hurricane Dorian, the devastating storm that has decimated parts of the island nation.

The United States is not only concerned about the Bahamian people, but also the national security implications if China steps in to help fill the country's vast needs, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Parts of the Bahamas are only about 50 miles off the coast of Florida, raising concerns about the potential for such a powerful economic and political adversary to gain a greater foothold in such proximity.
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What would be the political consequences of providing more aid to the Bahamas than has been given to Puerto Rico?
 
Can't we at least wait until the Mayor of Marsh Harbor gives a press conference decrying the lack of humanity displayed by the US president while using pallets of undistributed aid supplies as a backdrop before we jump into the politics of this disaster?
 
Lutherf said:
Can't we at least wait until the Mayor of Marsh Harbor gives a press conference decrying the lack of humanity displayed by the US president while using pallets of undistributed aid supplies as a backdrop before we jump into the politics of this disaster?
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Oh no, I actually think the Bahamians will be receiving more aid than we saw following the hurricanes which hit Puerto Rico last year. The Bahamians will be praising our president's humanity and rapid response to the disaster - but some people will wonder why another nation gets more aid than Americans.
 
If China wants to help the Bahamas then let them pour in all the money they want into the Bahamas. It shouldn't be the US's job to help other countries recover from natural disasters.
 
Somerville said:
The people of the Bahamas are going to need a lot of help to recover from the devastation of hurricane Dorian. If China offers financial and logistical aid with the possibility of establishing stronger ties between the Bahamas and China, how will the US respond?



What would be the political consequences of providing more aid to the Bahamas than has been given to Puerto Rico?
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FYI, China has had a fairly large footprint in the Bahamas going back 10 years or more. They buy seafood there and in Florida too, though the recent tariffs seem to have diminished their buying in Florida according to some in the business.

China has had major construction projects in Nassau going on for years, including resort hotels.

How they might respond to the present crisis remains to be seen.
 
Bahamas is a sovereign country they can and probably will accept aide from any other country Puerto Rico is not therefore can not accept aide from anyone.
 
jamesrage said:
If China wants to help the Bahamas then let them pour in all the money they want into the Bahamas. It shouldn't be the US's job to help other countries recover from natural disasters.
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Maybe you should read a linked article before replying to comments.

"There are certainly concerns about the Chinese having full access to the region," said Fernando Cutz, who served as senior director at the National Security Council in the Trump administration until last year. "You could imagine a situation where they would develop intelligence capabilities, intelligence gathering capabilities."

He added: "And, of course, they could potentially one day have a base, a naval base or some sort of Chinese military base, that close to our shore that would pose a very significant national security issue for the United States."
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Yeah, screw those other countries, they don't need American money or aid. Causing old alliances to disintegrate just makes America First - without intelligence being supplied by once friendly nations.
 
Somerville said:
Maybe you should read a linked article before replying to comments.



Yeah, screw those other countries, they don't need American money or aid. Causing old alliances to disintegrate just makes America First - without intelligence being supplied by once friendly nations.
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I read the reasons for opposing China giving aid instead of Americans wasting millions or perhaps even billions of helping the Bahamas recover and its hogwash. We are not the world's piggy bank.
 
Somerville said:
The people of the Bahamas are going to need a lot of help to recover from the devastation of hurricane Dorian. If China offers financial and logistical aid with the possibility of establishing stronger ties between the Bahamas and China, how will the US respond?
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Trump doesn't want to help the Bahamians. His excuse for not letting our neighbors evacuate to here is that somehow "some very bad people" might enter the country as storm refugees.

Just one more example of Trump burning alliances and leaving a vacuum for someone else to step into. He has no call to complain of that someone is China.
 
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It seems to me there is more of an effort to help the Bahamians, (foreigners,) than there is/was to helping US citizens in Puerto Rico....
 
jamesrage said:
If China wants to help the Bahamas then let them pour in all the money they want into the Bahamas. It shouldn't be the US's job to help other countries recover from natural disasters.
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You live in a neighborhood and piss off all your neighbor to the point where they loathe and distrust you. So your worst enemy steps in and heaps gifts and praise on your neighbors, befriending them all.

Surely that will end well for you.
 
Cardinal said:
You live in a neighborhood and piss off all your neighbor to the point where they loathe and distrust you. So your worst enemy steps in and heaps gifts and praise on your neighbors, befriending them all.

Surely that will end well for you.
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After we get Trump out, the next president will have to go on one hell of an apology tour. But it will have to be done, so we can let the world know we're open for business again and determined never to abuse our allies' trust like that again.
 
Amelia said:
After we get Trump out, the next president will have to go on one hell of an apology tour. But it will have to be done, so we can let the world know we're open for business again and determined never to abuse our allies' trust like that again.
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We can't sincerely make that promise until we've cleaned up the electoral problems that led to Trump in the first place. It's like your wreck of a spouse apologizing without making any of the changes that make him a wreck.

Until we fix gerrymandering, large and anonymous political donations, voter suppression and the electoral college, we're just gonna have another trump to piss the world off with.
 
Amelia said:
Trump doesn't want to help the Bahamians. His excuse for not letting our neighbors evacuate to here is that somehow "some very bad people" might enter the country as storm refugees.

Just one more example of Trump burning alliances and leaving a vacuum for someone else to step into. He has no call to complain of that someone is China.
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Where the hell do you come up with this stuff?

 
Somerville said:
Oh no, I actually think the Bahamians will be receiving more aid than we saw following the hurricanes which hit Puerto Rico last year. The Bahamians will be praising our president's humanity and rapid response to the disaster - but some people will wonder why another nation gets more aid than Americans.
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Because they think Puerto Rico is a less important foreign nation than the Bahamas are.

Whereas it's actually a US territory, and thus automatically should be more important to the USA than every other country on the face of the earth, including Norway.
 
Cardinal said:
You live in a neighborhood and piss off all your neighbor to the point where they loathe and distrust you. So your worst enemy steps in and heaps gifts and praise on your neighbors, befriending them all.

Surely that will end well for you.
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I didn't say anything about pissing off the Bahamas. I just said it isn't our responsibility to help them recover from natural disasters. We got a out own problems to worry about. If you really thought China was worst enemy then you would support every effort to pull out of trade deals with China and support Trump jacking up tariffs on Chinese goods. Because the Chinese aren't building homeless shelters and aiding the unfortunate with that money, they are building up and modernizing their military with that money.
 
jamesrage said:
I didn't say anything about pissing off the Bahamas. I just said it isn't our responsibility to help them recover from natural disasters. We got a out own problems to worry about. If you really thought China was worst enemy then you would support every effort to pull out of trade deals with China and support Trump jacking up tariffs on Chinese goods. Because the Chinese aren't building homeless shelters and aiding the unfortunate with that money, they are building up and modernizing their military with that money.
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You're pretending I didn't just ask you a question. If your worst enemy befriends all the neighbors you've pissed off, how will that work out for you?
 
Cardinal said:
You're pretending I didn't just ask you a question. If your worst enemy befriends all the neighbors you've pissed off, how will that work out for you?
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Your question is irrelelvent because I never said we should piss off our neighbors and if you really believed China was our worst enemy then you wouldn't support sending your money to them in the form of goods you buy from them.
 
jamesrage said:
I didn't say anything about pissing off the Bahamas. I just said it isn't our responsibility to help them recover from natural disasters. We got a out own problems to worry about. If you really thought China was worst enemy then you would support every effort to pull out of trade deals with China and support Trump jacking up tariffs on Chinese goods. Because the Chinese aren't building homeless shelters and aiding the unfortunate with that money, they are building up and modernizing their military with that money.
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You really should do a bit of reading outside your comfort zone. China is spending money in many nations, gaining access to local politicians and influencing the citizens of those countries.

Chinese investment in Latin America continues to expand

While financial warning lights are blinking, China has some characteristics that reduce the risk of a financial crisis and give the government time to deal with emerging issues, provided that the leadership summons enough political will. These features include a high domestic savings rate that reduces the country’s dependence on capital inflows, a state-owned banking system that largely lends to state-owned entities, effective capital controls, and a reserve stockpile that that has declined from $4 trillion to $3 trillion but remains very large.
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Oh yeah, pull out of trade deals with China and lose what little leverage we presently have with the country. Aaaaargh -- ideology before rational thought!!
 
Somerville said:
The people of the Bahamas are going to need a lot of help to recover from the devastation of hurricane Dorian. If China offers financial and logistical aid with the possibility of establishing stronger ties between the Bahamas and China, how will the US respond?



What would be the political consequences of providing more aid to the Bahamas than has been given to Puerto Rico?
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If we're worried China might help them more than us, best we get with the helping ASAP.

I suppose without the threat of a rival country helping a place, it gets less, eh Puerto Rico?
 
There's something I feel we're missing with this tragedy in the Bahamas. I've seen every network reporting live from either Nassau or Abaco and they're all doing a great job, on all networks. But what I'm not seeing is someone representing the government stepping before a microphone and explaining the situation in more detail as far as rescue efforts are going and are planned in the future.

Isn't there anyone there that can take the helm and outline a clear direction. For instance are efforts coordinated between the relief coming from all over the world and if so who is doing that? Will someone be bringing in heavy duty excavators and backhoes to help clear debris, and what is their plan for all that debris, will they burn it, sink it in the ocean, what? Where are the dead going, are they going to be interned in the island where they expired? Who's paying for all that and exactly what are the efforts being made by the Bahamian government itself, do they have money to rebuild? I have so many questions like that and although it's great to have the networks covering scenes of the horrible destruction, I still have so many questions that the public just isn't getting information about. I mean, what's the plan in the bigger picture?
 
Lutherf said:
Can't we at least wait until the Mayor of Marsh Harbor gives a press conference decrying the lack of humanity displayed by the US president while using pallets of undistributed aid supplies as a backdrop before we jump into the politics of this disaster?
Click to expand...

This post did not age well.
 
Somerville said:
The people of the Bahamas are going to need a lot of help to recover from the devastation of hurricane Dorian. If China offers financial and logistical aid with the possibility of establishing stronger ties between the Bahamas and China, how will the US respond?

What would be the political consequences of providing more aid to the Bahamas than has been given to Puerto Rico?
Click to expand...

One saving grace that the Bahamas have over Puerto Rico is that they are an independent nation and thus not under the direct rule of Trump. This could be an opportunity for China to make a move on the West and help out the Bahamas as a publicity stunt.
 
Somerville said:
Oh no, I actually think the Bahamians will be receiving more aid than we saw following the hurricanes which hit Puerto Rico last year. The Bahamians will be praising our president's humanity and rapid response to the disaster - but some people will wonder why another nation gets more aid than Americans.
Click to expand...

So the US will help in the Bahamas. Did help in PR, and OMG, China might step in with help of their own.

And the left is busy keeping score before the fact.
 
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