Chinese Embassy highlights strong Guyana/China partnership over the years.

Hours after President Irfaan Ali declared the United States is a friend that should be afforded preferential treatment, the Chinese Embassy in Georgetown appeared to have taken umbrage, releasing a number of posters explaining its trade relations with Guyana over the years.

The Chinese embassy said the relations between the two countries have always been solid.

“China has always “Put China-Guyana Friendship First”. We honor 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 Chinese embassy noted.

In recent years, the United States has expressed concerns with China’s growing influence in Latin America and the Caribbean.

But the Chinese Embassy explained that China has been pushing infrastructure development and is willing to continue along that line with greater collaboration.

“Over the past 12 years China-Guyana trade volume has increased from US$180 million in 2013 to US$1.4 billion in 2024. China is willing to deepen the alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative and Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030, and elevate the level of high quality Belt and Road cooperation between the two countries,” the Chinese embassy explained in the posters.

The quick response from China appears to be in direct response to statements made by President Ali at a joint press conference with U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier in the day, and Rubio’s own concerns about China.

“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,” the President noted.

The Chinese embassy has also detailed several projects that China is currently undertaking in Guyana, including the new Demerara Bridge, China-Guyana Joe Vieria Park, the construction of six new Regional Hospitals and the East Coast Demerara road project.