New leadership in China will not change bilateral ties with Grenada

Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of
Grenada in Beijing, Richard Nixon.

By Linda Straker

Richard Nixon, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Grenada in Beijing, believes that the strong bilateral ties between Grenada and China would continue to deepen and strengthen even if China were to adopt a new generation of leaders.

“Over the past few years, China has demonstrated their friendship to Grenada in many ways and we are currently engaged in developing many more projects together. The bilateral arrangements cover many industry sectors and we are now in the process of formalising a structured approach for long-term engagement and ongoing future co-operation and mutual economic and technical development between both of our countries. This relationship we have with China is very special and we intend to keep it that way,” Nixon said in an interview with China’s television.

He believes that the path which has been laid out by the previous leadership is a good path to follow into the future. “As you know, plans should be susceptible to change based on current events and redirection of areas that are of national interest. This is true for every country in the world and I expect that it would be the same for China,” he said.

Nixon said that reforms on domestic policies would be very necessary, in accordance with China’s national development plans.


“For example, back in 1995 when I first visited China, I enquired about the opening up of the mobile telecommunications market and I was informed that this would happen in time after we first learn to compete among each other,” he said, while explaining that he sees this same methodology being adopted in other areas of reform that would be based on Chinese characteristics through its norms, traditions, culture and experiences.

On the economic front, Nixon said that one cannot help but to comment on the sustained growth rate in China, even though it is creating some domestic challenges of its own, these numbers are quite coveted by many countries around the world.

“With this in mind, I suspect that there will be a rebalancing of the domestic economy. This should also include a realignment of real estate pricing, affordability of rents and accommodation for migrant workers in the cities, increase in domestic consumption, among others,” he said, while pointing out that the development of the western and rural areas of China will continue as China seeks to increase the quality of life and livelihood into its rural areas as well.