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President of Guyana Irfaan Ali, meeting with United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. (Photo via CMC)
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The government of China has expressed displeasure with the stance taken by President Irfaan Ali concerning the country’s relationship with the United States and comments made during the visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In a statement posted to social media, the Chinese Embassy here said “China has always “Put China-Guyana Friendship First”.
“We honour our commitment with concrete actions. As a matter of fact, China has participated fully at the biggest economic and social transformation in the history of Guyana. Facts and figures speak louder than anything else,” the Embassy here said on its Facebook page.
Accompanying that post were several images stating, among other things, that “over the past 12 years China-Guyana trade volume has increased from US$180 million in 2013 to US$1.4 billion in 2024, and that China is willing to deepen the alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative and Guyana’s Low Carbon Strategy 2030, and elevate the level of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between the two countries.
The Chinese Embassy also listed several infrastructural projects that China is involved in Guyana.
On Thursday, Ali told a news conference that Guyana would treat the US preferentially in exchange for support in development, economic expansion, security and defence.
“I will say very boldly that such friends must have some different and preferential treatment because a friend who will defend me when I need a friend to defend me, must be a friend that enjoys some special place in our hearts and in our country, and that will be the case,” he said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who shared the news conference with Ali, said unequivocally that if Venezuela attacked American supermajor’s oil assets in Guyana’s Stabroek Block or took military action against Guyana in pressing its border claim to the Essequibo Region it would face tough consequences. “It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if they were to attack Guyana or attack ExxonMobil or anything like it,” he said.
Guyana and China established diplomatic relations in 1972, and since then both the People’s National Congress Reform and People’s Progressive Party Civic-led administrations have supported the One China policy instead of the breakaway province of Taiwan.
In February 2021, relations between Guyana and China soured after the American embassy here announced that Guyana had granted permission for Taiwan to open a trade and investment facilitation office.
Despite assurances by the government then that Guyana’s One China policy had remained intact, China intensified diplomatic representation then and got the Guyana government to overturn that decision.
Ali said on Thursday that Guyana and the US share a long bond of friendship and partnership.
