Abstract
This article discusses the 2025 U.S. tariff assaults on China and its impacts on the Caribbean region. Though the U.S. tariff assault on China began in 2018, justifications for such an assault began much earlier. This article debunks 3 popular myths spread by the U.S. and other pro-Western security analysts about China being a threat in the Caribbean. These myths exist to avoid addressing Caribbean structural dependency on the West, which is the reason for underdevelopment in the Caribbean region. Though China—as all foreign entities are—is able to take advantage of Western policies that make the Caribbean region exploitable, China is not the reason for those policies or the reason that the Caribbean region remains one of the most indebted within the Western capitalist system. I argue that what is feared by the U.S. and its allies, which includes neocolonial governments in the Caribbean, is China’s ability to open space for greater autonomy and sovereignty through diversifying development strategies in the region. In other words, I highlight how Caribbean dependence on, and subservience to, the U.S.-led capitalist imperialist system remains the biggest threat to Caribbean people in the region.
Recommended Citation
John, Tamanisha J.
(2025)
"US Tariff Assaults on China, Impacts on a Dependent Region: the Caribbean,"
Class, Race and Corporate Power: Vol. 13:
Iss.
2, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol13/iss2/3
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